Train wreck
by HuddyJibbsAddict
Summary: An anonymous phone call in the middle of the night, a kidnapping and a case involving Hollis Mann and Gibbs' third ex-wife. How much worse can Jenny's day get? Set in season 5, Mibbs until Gibbs comes to his senses.
1. Chapter 1: Gut feeling

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its characters, my life would be much more easier if I did.

A/N: This idea got stuck in my head while Implicit rule was on hold forcing me to write it down. My beta liked it so I decided to publish it.

I'm gonna use the same OCs that in Implicit rule but you don't have to read it to understand this story [even if I advise you to ;-)].

It starts during "Ex-File" 5x03 so spoilers for that episode.

English isn't my first language but I have an amazing beta.

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><p>Chapter 1: Gut feeling<p>

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><p><strong>October 10, 2007 4:00 am <strong>

**Georgetown, Washington D.C**

_Driiiiiing_

Jenny Shepard frowned in her sleep; why was a telephone ringing on the beach she was resting on? You weren't supposed to find phones on a deserted island with only tropical birds as living company. She had made sure there weren't any phones before going there, so where did this damn ringing come from?

_Driiiiing_

Her eyes snapped open and it took her a few blinks to get rid of the images of white sand, turquoise blue water and palm trees and a few more moments to realize that the ringing phone was actually on her bedside table and not in her dream.

"Shepard," she said while picking up, trying to hide the annoyance she felt at being woken up at 4 a.m. from a very pleasant dream.

No one talked back and she was about to repeat her greeting when she heard some kind of heavy breathing. She focused on it; it wasn't like Jethro's breathing, no, more like someone growling lowly.

"Hello, who is this?" she asked when the person still didn't talk. The growl only intensified and after a minute she heard the dial tone.

She looked at the phone in askance and then placed it back on its cradle. _Some kid's joke_, she thought, shaking her head.

"Everything alright?" Someone said from her bedroom door, making her jump. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," Nathan said.

"No, it's okay, I should be used to it by now," Jenny answered, brushing it off.

"Who was it?" he asked, nodding towards the phone.

Jenny shrugged. "No idea, probably a kid's idea of fun or something. The one time I was actually sleeping," she sighed and Nathan smirked.

"Well, you know, I could help you with that." The only answer he got was a glare and a pillow thrown his way as he hastily left the room.

Jenny groaned as she flopped back against her remaining pillows. She considered the idea of calling in, she could pretend she was sick or something until the MCRT solved their case. This way she could avoid Gibbs, Colonel Mann and ex-wife number 3.

Yeah, that was a good plan, except she had a ton of paperwork, a thousand phone calls to make and operations in MTAC to oversee. She sighed again; the prospect of going to work was not an enjoyable one.

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><p><strong>October 10, 2007 1:00 pm<strong>

**Navy Yard, Washington D.C**

Again, she realized how good her plan to call in sick had been as she sat across from Stephanie Flynn, Gibbs's fourth wife, listening to her rant about Gibbs' conflict of interest in this case.

"There's a serious conflict here. Jethro shouldn't be leading this investigation," Stephanie said.

"He's not. Colonel Mann is," Jenny replied, almost smirking at the mild glare the other woman sent her way, and added, "You pick up that look from Gibbs?"

"I picked up a lot of bad habits from Gibbs," Stephanie answered, almost resigned.

"I understand your concern," Jenny stated, trying to placate her.

"Then take him off the case." Apparently, Stephanie had no intention of backing down anytime soon.

"I've known Agent Gibbs a long time. I trust and respect his judgment." Jenny was getting impatient, she rarely appreciated having to justify her decision as Director of a federal agency to a layman.

"My boyfriend didn't kill anyone," Stephanie insisted, almost desperate.

"Then I'm sure the investigation will bear that out." She kept her tone even, trying for the second time of the day to hide her annoyance at her interlocutor.

"Maybe not before damaging Eric's military career." For her part, Stephanie was making no effort to keep the annoyance away from her tone.

"If Major Sweigart wasn't involved, I'll personally see to it that he suffers no career repercussions," Jenny said, and it seemed to do the trick.

Stephanie thought about it and finally said."Thank you." Jenny smiled faintly, while internally sighing in relief. However, it seemed Stephanie wasn't finished.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" she asked and, having an idea where this was going, Jenny considered it for a second before giving her a fake smile that felt more like a grimace.

"I don't quite know how to put this, but I always had the feeling that, before our marriage, there was something between you and Jethro," Stephanie stated more than asked.

Jenny knew the woman wasn't stupid and, no matter what, she knew that the NCIS Director couldn't give another answer that this: "It has always been strictly professional between us."

Jenny could see that Stephanie didn't believe her but it didn't matter; she had appearances to maintain. She had negated her relationship with Gibbs for three years, she would be damned if she revealed it to the woman he had married just a few months after her own departure. Those wounds had taken time to heal and she had no intention to reopen them now.

As she got up and accompanied Miss Flynn to the bullpen, she felt the need to check her phone. Since she had left her place this morning she had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, as if she was dreading some horrible event. She had no idea what it was but it was there and strong.

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><p>In the meantime, Ziva David and Tony DiNozzo were about to inform their boss and temporary boss of their findings at the victim's house. They had found their victim's wife cleaning meticulously the crime scene and they had brought her to headquarters for interrogation.<p>

"She's got something to hide. Why else would she clean so thoroughly?" Ziva said, as they were walking to their desks.

At this very moment, they noticed that the Director was descending the stairs with Gibbs' ex-wife and was looking over at Gibbs and Colonel Mann in the bullpen.

"Train wreck," Tony said just as Colonel Mann and Gibbs noticed him and Ziva and were heading towards them. "I want to look away but I can't," Tony said, joyfully, already knowing he would enjoy what was about to take place.

"Agent Gibbs? " the Director called, getting Gibbs' attention.

"Director," he replied back after having studied the two women.

"Colonel," Jenny said, turning towards Mann. "I was just reassuring Gibbs' -" she started but then thought better of it, "- your witness, that Agent Gibbs could separate himself from the personal aspects of this investigation," she explained.

"Well, I'll monitor him closely, Director," Mann assured the two women.

"I'm sure you will," Jenny said, after a slight pause, making Gibbs smirk and look away, which Stephanie noticed.

"Is that the look you' re talking about?" she asked, pointing at him, to which Gibbs replied with a glare.

"Yeah, that's it," Jenny confirmed, she hadn't missed it either

"Yup, we've all seen that one," Mann said, needing to add her two cents.

From where they were standing, it seemed to Tony and Ziva that Gibbs was surrounded by three exes or future exes with no way out and he appeared to be extremely uncomfortable with the situation.

"Well, Ms. Flynn was just leaving…" Jenny had barely started her next sentence when her phone rang. "Excuse me," she said, as she pulled it out of her pants' pocket. She looked at the caller ID and, even from their distance, they could see her go pale. She cleared her throat and answered, walking towards the window.

Gibbs was about to show Stephanie to the elevators when they heard Jenny raise her voice sharply.

"_What_?" The switch had been so unexpected it took a second for Ziva to realize Jenny had said it in Hebrew.

"_How could that happen? You're not supposed to leave the house without telling me first so how did he get shot OUTSIDE? And what about … how is she?_" Jenny was getting agitated but she had caught herself before saying any name.

The bullpen had become silent as everyone tried to understand what was going on with their boss.

Having recognized the language but not understanding it, Gibbs and Tony turned towards Ziva. She was about to answer their unasked question when Jenny's next words shocked her into silence again.

"_Abba, where is she? You know I'm gonna tear it out of you at some point, so save us both some time and tell me_." It wasn't the sentence in itself that shocked Ziva, she herself had said far worse things to get information from someone. No, it was the 'Abba' at the beginning of it. 'Abba' meant 'father' and it made no sense since they knew Jenny's father was dead. Of course, 'Abba' could also be the short for Abraham but it didn't help Ziva to understand what was going on.

"_How is that possible? Where were you? What were you doing instead of watching her? No, come to think of it, save your excuses for later, I'm on my way. The hell I'm gonna wait until you know more. You are in no position to tell me what to do! I'm on my way_." With that she put her phone back in her pocket and entered the elevator Gibbs had called for Stephanie without looking back or saying a word to anyone.

The fact that she had left without her IDs or her sidearm didn't escape anyone except her it seemed.

"What the hell just happened?" Tony asked, stunned, and even if Gibbs hadn't said the words, the same question was visible on his face.

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><p>AN: So what did you think?


	2. Chapter 2: Fear and Trembling

A/N: I don't own the "Fear and Trembling" book by Amelie Nothomb, I just shamelessly stole its tittle, don't sue me!

Thanks so much for reading, alerting, favoriting this story and a big virtual hug to She Demon Sparacino, left my heart in paris and PC for their reviews.

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><p>Chapter 2: Fear and Trembling<p>

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><p><strong>October 10, 2007 1:20 pm<strong>

**Navy Yard, Washington D.C**

"What the hell just happened?" Tony asked, stunned, and even if Gibbs hadn't said the words, the same question was visible on his face.

Ziva was still speechless, staring at the elevator Jenny had just entered.

"Ziva," Gibbs called loudly, finally succeeding in snapping her out of her trance.

"Yes, Gibbs?" Ziva turned towards him.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"Well, she got a call from someone she called Abba; it was about a man she knows being shot and a woman being kidnapped. At least that's how I understood it; she was very careful about saying any names," Ziva explained, now analyzing what she heard. "There was something strange; she said 'You're not supposed to leave the house without telling me first so how did he get shot OUTSIDE?' "

"Leaving the house? As if they were living with her? You know something about that, Boss?" DiNozzo realized, a second too late, it may not have been the best thing to say, especially after Gibbs sent him an assassin look.

"No, DiNozzo, I don't know anything about that. What makes you think I should?" Gibbs snapped at him.

"Nothing, Boss, I just thought… well, you know everything, and I thought that maybe… never mind." Tony was rambling now and it could have amused Ziva if she wasn't so preoccupied with what was happening with Jenny.

Gibbs looked thoughtful for a moment and then he went back to Stephanie, telling her they would contact her if they needed more information; she seemed a little reluctant to leave, apparently very curious about what had just occurred.

"So what did you find at the victim's house?" Gibbs asked when he returned to them.

They watched him with wide eyes.

"You're not serious?" Ziva asked, bewildered.

Gibbs only glared at her. "I thought I made myself clear, I asked you if you had found anything at the victim's house."

"It's Jenny we're talking about, she could be in danger. She left without her IDs and her weapon and I don't think she notified her security detail. This phone call could be a trap, someone trying to lure her away from NCIS, to kidnap her or kill her and you're telling me you're gonna pretend it never happened?" Ziva was so angry she was yelling without caring about who could hear her.

"She is not my partner anymore, it's not my job to look after her. If she had wanted our help, all she had to do was ask for it. We were right there." Gibbs' calm tone only angered Ziva more and she threw him a disbelieving look.

"Since when does Jenny ask for help? She isn't my partner anymore either, that doesn't mean I'm gonna stand by and do nothing when I feel she is in danger!" Ziva was fuming. Tony was sure she could breathe fire right now.

Gibbs considered her and what she said. He didn't really know why he was reacting like this, probably because he was sure it was just another of Jenny's need to know ops, that absolutely no one knew about except her. He was tired of Jenny's secrets, tired of trying to get her out of her messes, but Ziva had a point,. Jenny had left in a hurry, there were every chances that she hadn't told anyone where she was going. She could be in danger. No matter what she was hiding from him -again- she was still someone he cared about. He sighed and spotted McGee who was just coming back from Abby's lab.

"McGee!" he called, startling the young man. He was about to tell him what he needed from him when he noticed, for the first time, that first Jenny's phone call and then Ziva and his outbursts had attracted a pretty large audience. "Don't you all have work to do?" he yelled, sending a harsh glare to the ones who were brave enough to make eye contact with him.

Once everyone returned to their work, he approached McGee. "I need you to trace the Director's cell phone," he said.

McGee raised his eyebrows at that. "Boss?" he asked a little uncertainly.

"Yes, McGee?" Gibbs growled, becoming annoyed with everyone questioning his orders.

"Huh, nothing, I just wanted to be sure I understood what you were asking. Okay, tracing the Director's cell phone, no problem, on it Boss," McGee said, recognizing the sign of his Boss' extreme annoyance.

"Ziva, go to her office, take her IDs and her gun." Gibbs had a feeling she was going to need them. Ziva nodded, satisfied that he had changed his mind and climbed the stairs rapidly.

"Boss, I found her. She is on the move," McGee announced two minutes later, just as Ziva was coming back.

"Can you follow her on your I thingy?" Gibbs asked, grasping for the proper name.

"My iPhone? Yes, of course," McGee answered, used to Gibbs' difficulties with technological devices names.

"So, you three, grab you gear, we're moving," Gibbs said. As he was turning around to head towards the elevator, he almost collided with Hollis, who was standing right behind him. She had been silent during all this, knowing that anything she said would probably not be appreciated, and he had almost forgotten about her.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" she asked, her tone not so pleasant.

"What?" he replied, impatiently; now that he had decided to go find Jenny, he didn't want anything else delaying them.

"You have a case. The Marine Captain Trent Reynolds, remember?" Hollis was getting really pissed off right now. She wasn't seeing what the big deal was; the Director had left, so what? From what she knew it wasn't the first time.

"No, YOU have a case. You're the lead. I'm not asking you to come with us." Since their conversation in the elevator about Shannon and Kelly, he didn't really want to talk to her about anything that wasn't related to the job. He was trying to sidestep her but she just placed herself back in front of him. "Stop that, Hollis, I don't have time for this," he said, annoyed again.

"Is it always going to be like this? The moment we have a fight, you're gonna avoid me and run away the first chance you get?" she asked, sighing.

"It has nothing to do with us, Hollis. It's about the Director being out there somewhere without backup," Gibbs tried to explain, only making Hollis laugh.

"And you didn't really seem to care about that a few minutes ago. She is a big girl, she can take care of herself. It's not the first time she did that from what I heard," Hollis countered, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, and the last time she did that, she had her weapon but she almost got killed anyway, so allow me to doubt her abilities to take care of herself," Gibbs replied and this time he didn't give her the chance to prevent him from leaving.

He headed towards the elevator without looking back.

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><p><strong>October 10, 2007 1:45 pm<strong>

**Georgetown University Hospital, Washington D.C**

She had left NCIS without even thinking about calling her security detail or her driver. She didn't want anyone to follow her or to know what she was doing. She knew the Navy Yard well enough to avoid the guards and leave them none the wiser about her departure.

She hailed a taxi and told him to drive her to Washington International Primary School on Reservoir Road North West. It was close enough to Georgetown University Hospital for her to walk the rest of the way and far enough so the taxi driver wouldn't make the link.

Abraham texted her the name of the ward and the number of the hospital room.

She was just a few meters away from the room when someone grabbed her wrist, forcing her to enter a utility closet. The moment she tried to yell, the person put a hand on her mouth and whispered "Shhh, it's me."

She relaxed when she recognized Mikhael's, Abraham's son, voice. She nodded to make him understand he could release her and the moment he did, she slapped him sharply on the chest.

"Hey, what was that for?" he whispered, surprised more than hurt.

"For scaring me. What's going on?" she asked.

"The cops are in the room, interrogating Noemie," he explained.

"Is she alright?" Jenny asked, mentally headslapping herself for forgetting about her housekeeper.

"I don't know, I was about to enter when Abraham spotted me. He signed me to get away; I'm waiting for him to text me," Mikhael replied, the worry as clearly visible on his face as it was on Jenny's.

They spent the next few minutes in silence, not really wanting to be discovered in the utility closet when Metro P.D. was just meters away.

At last, they got the all-clear and they entered the hospital room. They looked from the bed to Abraham questioningly and he answered them before they asked any question.

"He is still in surgery but he should be okay. Two bullets wounds, one in the left forearm, the other in the right leg, a mild concussion that made him lose consciousness; he lost some blood, he is gonna need some PT but overall it could have been way much worse. He was lucky."

"Lucky? It shouldn't have happened in the first place," Jenny said, clenching her fists in anger. She turned towards Noemi and sat next to her. "Tell me what happened," she said in a gentle tone, rubbing the poor woman's shoulders.

"Oh, Senora, everything happened so fast. There was a car, an SUV. Several times it drove round the block and Mister Nathan was getting annoyed by it. At some point, the car parked across the street. He took his gun and went outside. He was about to cross the street when the driver window opened and someone shot at him. He fell and I didn't know what to do. I had already called the 911 and I wanted to help him but I knew I had to protect little Miss Hannah. The next thing I know, two hooded men were entering the house, one searched downstairs and the other searched upstairs. I had locked myself in one of the bathroom with Miss Hannah but he found us and I tried to stop him but he slapped me and he took her. I'm so sorry, Senora, so sorry." Her story had been punctuated by sobs but, at the end of it, she was almost hyperventilating, openly crying. Jenny tried to comfort her, blinking away her own tears.

Mikhael turned towards Abraham and again the doctor answered before he asked any question.

"She told the cops she didn't know Nathan, that she just saw what happened from inside the house, called 911, tried to help him but the men who had shot him pushed her away before taking Nathan's wallet and leaving. No mention of Hannah."

Mikhael nodded. "Good, that will buy us some time. They will probably want to talk to you, Jenny, if only to inform you about what happened," he added, turning towards the two women.

"I'm gonna call Cynthia. She will say to anyone who asks that I'm in MTAC all day and can't be disturbed," Jenny said, her phone already in her hand.

The call didn't last more than two minutes; Cynthia was discreet, she had worked with Jenny long enough to know when to ask questions and when not to.

"It was an ambush," Jenny said as she took her seat back beside Noemi. "They needed Nathan to leave the house unprotected. God knows how long they kept us under surveillance. The question is who is their real target? All of us, one of you three, the three of you or me?"

"That's what we would like to know too," someone said from the room's entrance. They all turned towards the voice - Mikhael pulling his gun out, pointing it at Gibbs' head.

It didn't take one second for the team to pull their own guns out making Jenny roll her eyes.

"Don't be stupid, put them down," she said. "Put them down, all of you," she ordered, raising her voice when they didn't budge.

She approached Mikhael, surprised to see that he didn't seem to hear her; his eyes were huge, he was breathing way too fast. His hands were shaking, some pearls of sweat were forming on his forehead. Slowly, she raised her hands to his face, seizing it, turning it towards her. "Mikhael, they work for me, they won't do anything if you put your gun down," she explained, in a calm, soothing tone.

Mikhael's eyes became focused again and he finally lowered his gun. Jenny quickly took it, giving it to Abraham and she made Mikhael sit in her chair.

The man covered his face with his hands, horrified and shaken. "We're gonna lose them too, we're gonna lose them too," he was repeating, over and over.

Jenny exchanged a look with Abraham, who appeared to be as shaken as his son. She stooped to Mikhael's level and whispered, "Mikhael, listen to me. We're not gonna lose anyone. It's completely different from what happened last time. Nathan is gonna be okay, we will find Hannah and we will make the bastards pay who dared to touch her. Do you understand me? We will make them pay and when we are finished with them, they will regret they were ever born." She tried to appear more confident than she felt.

It seemed to work since Mikhael uncovered his face and looked in her eyes, probably gauging her sincerity. After a moment, he finally nodded making Jenny release a breath she hadn't even realized she had been holding.

Jenny turned towards her agents. "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded.

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><p>What did you think? Loved, it, hated it, didn't care? Tell me either way!<p> 


	3. Chapter 3: Twist

A/N: This chapter was a little more difficult to write than expected but I finally did it.

As always, thanks for reading, alerting, favoriting and especially thanks to leighanne jenny gibbs, jstapny, Miss Jayne, She-Demon Sparacino, left my heart in paris for their reviews. :-D

So, here is Train wreck's third chapter.

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><p>Chapter 3: Twist<p>

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><p><strong>October 10, 2007 2:00 pm<strong>

**Georgetown University Hospital, Washington D.C**

Jenny turned towards her agents. "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded. "No, actually, I don't care, I have more important things to deal with than you right now."

She crouched in front of Noemi. "Noemi, is there anything else you remember about those men? Or about the car? Did Nathan say something? Anything can help us."

The housekeeper racked her brain, and they all waited with bated breath. "Yes, Senior Nathan saw the license plate and he kept repeating it, as he always does when there is something he wants to be sure to remember." Jenny, Mikhael and Abraham had a slight private smile at that. "It was QA-9971, a black Lincoln Navigator, that's what he said," Noemi continued.

"Okay, that's great," Jenny said, nodding towards Mikhael, who already had his phone in hand. She was about to ask another question when she noticed McGee imitating Mikhael.

The glare she sent his way was enough for him to stop. He lowered his eyes guiltily. There was an exchange of looks between Jenny, Abraham and Mikhael and, in the end, she sighed and said, "Just do whatever you want."

Mikhael nodded and left the room, indicating to McGee to follow.

"The men, can you describe them?" Jenny asked, refocusing on Noemi.

"They were as tall as Senior Nathan, but not as big and they were dressed all in black, hood, gloves, even their shoes. I only saw the eyes of the one who took Hannah; they were icy, steely even, blue-grey," she shivered at the memory. "He didn't say a word, he just took her and left."

"Thanks, Noemi," Jenny said as she stood back up. If you knew her well you could see that she was doing everything she could to control her anger.

"Jenny," Mikhael said as he reentered the room with McGee. "Metro P.D and the Fire Department were called about a car burning, a black Lincoln Navigator. The plates match. It seems they got there in time, not too much damage, and there is a twist: they found a body in the trunk. A man, adult," he added at Jenny's panicked look.

She released a breath before asking the location.

Mikhael got a grim look at that. "Sheperd Park. It's about twenty minutes from here."

Jenny closed her eyes and shook her head. "They really have a twisted sense of humor."

"And here is the kicker, the car is registered to a Navy Lieutenant, Keith Jensen. NCIS can have jurisdiction on this," McGee informed them.

Jenny and Mikhael took their stuff and headed towards the door, before Jenny stopped in her tracks when she saw Abraham following them.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked him.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Abraham countered, in a slightly annoyed tone.

"It looks like you want to come with us," Jenny said and Abraham gave her a 'duh' look. "Can you tell me who is going to stay with Nathan if we all leave?" Jenny continued.

"Nathan will be under for a while after the surgery and when he wakes up he won't be able to go anywhere," Abraham said matter-of-factly.

Jenny gave him an incredulous look. "That's funny, if I remember correctly, you said the same thing last time and how many nurses did it take to restrain him?" she asked turning towards Mikhael.

"Six, I think," he answered.

"How many do you think it will take this time, Abraham, when the last thing he remembers is being shot at by two men while Hannah and Noemi were in the house?" Jenny asked rhetorically. "You stay here and you make sure he doesn't try to do something stupid like leaving the hospital. If we need you, we will call you." Jenny ordered in her don't-mess-with-me tone and Abraham nodded.

She left the room, Mikhael hot on her heels. "Are you coming or not?" she said, without looking back, this time addressing the team.

They followed all at once, Gibbs ahead. He rapidly joined Jenny, watching her tense up more and more as he approached.

"Care to tell me what this is all about?" he asked, harshly.

"Not here. Call Ducky, tell him to join us at Sheperd Park," she answered, in the same tone.

"Jen…" Gibbs tried but she whirled around and interrupted him.

"Look, I don't have time to deal with you and your interrogation. If you can't keep your mouth shut until I decide to answer your questions then I suggest you go back to the Navy Yard right now," she said, and without waiting for him to respond, she resumed her way towards the exit.

Gibbs sighed and raised his eyes upward as if to ask God what he had done to deserve that. Still, he followed.

The team observed that, staying mostly silent; Tony had bitten his tongue pretty hard not to make a Men In Black reference.

Just before Jenny hopped into Mikhael's car, Ziva called out her name to give her her ID and gun. Jenny seemed confused for a moment; she hadn't realized she had left without them.

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><p><strong>October 10, 2007 2:35 pm<strong>

**Sheperd Park, Washington D.C**

They arrived at Sheperd Park less than twenty minutes later. Gibbs dealt with the LEOs on site while the team was getting the equipment out of the car. Ziva had insisted they needed to be ready, just in case. It turned out she was right.

This slight delay had given Ducky enough time to arrive. He seemed puzzled, he knew the team hadn't solved their case so he wondered what had happened.

"Jethro, can you tell me what's going on?" the medical examiner asked his friend, who shook his head and pointed towards Jenny.

"Ask her," the Special Agent answered.

Ducky recognized the tone; he had heard it before, when his two friends were partners and became annoyed at each other, and, again, recently, during the Frog's hunt.

They all approached the car, quickly understanding that if the SUV was barely damaged it was because the fire's target wasn't the car but the body in the trunk.

"Well, we're lucky the firemen were so rapid," Ducky said. "We wouldn't have much to work with otherwise."

"Ziva, photos, Tony and McGee, bag and tag," Gibbs automatically distributed the roles.

"The hands and the face are mostly intact, so identification won't be a problem. Mister Palmer, can you check the fingerprints?" Ducky asked his assistant.

"Of course, Doctor," the younger man answered. "Ensign Ryan Jensen, 24 years old," he announced.

"Probably Lieutenant Jensen's brother," Gibbs said.

"Oh gosh," they heard Jenny's quiet exclamation.

Turning towards her, they saw she was holding a stuffed wolf she had found in the back of the car.

"It's hers," Mikhael said, stricken with horror.

It was like they were only realizing now what was happening; as if, until now, they had hoped it was a nightmare and they would wake up.

"Jenny, we need to bag it, it's evidence," Ziva said softly and Jenny raised her eyes towards her. After a while, she nodded slowly and put the stuffed animal carefully in the bag.

Turning away, Jenny joined Mikhael who had sat down on the sidewalk. They talked together for a moment in low voices.

Finally, Jenny stood back up and walked towards the team. She took a deep breath and started telling her story.

"Today, my 22-month-old goddaughter Hannah was kidnapped. Her mother, Elizabeth, was my best friend. She died 16 months ago and entrusted her daughter to me. She was murdered, along with her husband Jacob. Mikhael was her brother, Abraham, the doctor you met at the hospital, was her father and Nathaniel, the one who was shot, was Jacob's brother. When Hannah's parents were killed, they all came to live with me."

To say the team was shocked at her revelation was probably the understatement of the year. They stayed silent for a while, trying to understand what she said, when Ziva talked.

"I heard about you," she said. "You were Mossad, all of you. You disappeared almost 8 years ago, everyone thought you were dead."

Gibbs raised his head sharply at the mention of '8 years ago' and noticed Jenny was avoiding his gaze.

"We were Mossad, yes," Mikhael confirmed simply, apparently not wanting to dwell on the subject.

"We need to get back to the Navy Yard, there is nothing else we can do here," Gibbs stated as he called to have the SUV towed to headquarters.

Jenny and Mikhael nodded, defeated, and went back to their car.

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><p><strong>October 10, 2007 3:35 pm<strong>

**Navy Yard, Washington D.C**

The team registered their findings in the evidence garage for now, knowing they wouldn't be able to have Abby analyzing them as long as their guest from DIA was here.

Everyone could feel the tension in the elevator as they went back to the bullpen; they all stayed silent, afraid that if anyone started talking, it would open the damn for the load of questions swarming in their heads.

"Well, you're finally back. Had a nice trip?" was the first thing they heard when the elevator opened. Apparently, Colonel Mann had been ready for them.

Jenny and Mikhael passed by her without acknowledging her and headed towards Jenny's office, having understood the team would focus on their case before helping them.

"Jenny," Gibbs called after her and sighed when she kept going. He turned towards Hollis. "Well, did you solve the case?" he asked her, his tone slightly ironic.

It only made her angrier. "And how did you want me to do that without any resources?"

"You could have gotten a confession," Gibbs suggested.

"Huh, Boss. Before we left, I had been working on something. I've been watching the footage of ATMs surrounding the pharmaceutical convention in Charlottesville the wife said she attended, on the day Capt. Reynolds died," he explained as he put the images on the plasma.

They could clearly see the victim's wife on the sidewalk across from the ATM at the time of the murder.

"Can't be in two places at once," McGee said.

As they were working on their suspects' list, Jenny and Mikhael had arrived in her office to find Metro P.D. waiting for them.

"Director Shepard, I'm Lieutenant Burke and this is my partner Sergeant Trent," the lieutenant announced as they shook hands.

Before Jenny had to decide whether or not she would introduce Mikhael, his cellphone rang and he left the room to answer it.

"What can I do for Metro P.D.?" Jenny asked indicating they should sit around the conference table.

"This morning, your housekeeper, a Noemi Ramirez, witnessed a drive-by shooting just in front of your house. A man was injured, your housekeeper is fine. She is the one who called us," Lieutenant Burke explained and Jenny made her best confused face.

"What happened exactly?" Jenny asked.

"Your housekeeper didn't call you?" the Sergeant asked, surprised.

"I've been in MTAC most of the day, my secretary held my calls. It's the first time I set foot in my office since I arrived this morning. Even if she had tried to contact me I wouldn't have been able to answer," Jenny answered.

"Around 12:30 p.m, two men, in an SUV, shot another man on your street, before stealing his wallet and leaving. Your housekeeper was very shocked, and she couldn't give us much information. She said she didn't know the man; we wanted to know if you did. It would really help us. We couldn't ID him and he was unconscious when the paramedics arrived on site," Burke said as he showed her a picture of Nathan.

She pretended to study the photo before shaking her head. "I'm really sorry, I never saw him before," she told them.

"Did you receive any threats lately?" the Lieutenant tried again.

"I don't think this had anything to do with me. Those men were probably following him, waiting for the best opportunity to strike. My security is already handled. I'm grateful you informed me but as I said I don't know this man," Jenny kept her tone calm and matter-of-fact and the two officers took their dismissal gracefully.

"Thank you for your time," Lieutenant Burke said and Jenny simply nodded at him.

Mikhael reentered as they were leaving. "Well, that was close. Abba just told me Nathan is out of surgery, as far as they know he is alright but they're gonna have to wait for him to wake up to be sure, " he explained. "What did they ask you?"

"They wanted to know if I ever saw Nathan, if I was threatened, things like that. They really don't know anything about this case," Jenny answered, shrugging.

They stayed silent for a long while both of them wondered where and with whom Hannah could be and what had happened to prompt this attack.

Suddenly, the door slammed open, startling them both. It was Gibbs, of course, who else could enter this office without stopping by Cynthia or knocking.

"We solved our case. The guy sent by the DIA was working with our victim to sell classified information to the highest bidder; he got greedy and killed him to keep all the money," he explained. "The team is waiting for us in Abby's lab."

"And your Colonel?" Jenny asked.

"She left," Gibbs answered curtly, turning to leave. The other two followed him.

The moment Jenny set foot in the lab, she was pulled in an enough-to-break-bones Abby hug.

"Abby, she's turning blue," Gibbs told her when he realized Jenny couldn't talk.

"Sorry," Abby said as she released a dazed-looking Jenny. "We will find your little girl," she swore and she was so hopeful that, for a moment, Jenny allowed herself to believe her.

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><p>What did you think?<p> 


	4. Chapter 4: Confrontation

A/N: Thanks for sticking with this story and an even bigger thanks to left my heart in paris, Babyshaq99, She-Demon Sparacino and jstapny for their reviews. :-D

Mystery deepens, questions are raised, some answers are given and the clock is still ticking. Here is Train wreck fourth chapter. Enjoy ;-)

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><p>Chapter 4: Confrontation<p>

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><p><strong>October 10, 2007 5:00 pm<strong>

**Navy Yard, Washington D.C.**

_"We will find your little girl," Abby swore and she was so hopeful that, for a moment, Jenny allowed herself to believe her. _

She could feel the team's eyes on her and she did everything to ignore them.

"I need you to check my phone calls. This morning, around 4 am, I got a call. When I picked up, no one talked back. I just heard some sort of growl. I thought it was a kid's joke or something but, now, I'm not so sure," Jenny said, trying to get everyone's minds back on the case.

"Why didn't you tell us about that?" Mikhael asked, surprised.

"I did. I told Nathan."

"When?"

"After I hung up," Jenny replied, slightly annoyed.

"What was Nathan doing in your room at 4 a.m.?" Mikhael asked, completely missing Jenny's annoyed tone until she looked daggers at him.

"Okay, I'm going to pretend you never asked such a stupid question and didn't imply what I think you were implying about Nathan and I. And you will never mention this again, especially if you want to stay in one piece. Agreed?" Jenny seemed really threatening, and even DiNozzo thought better than to make a suggestive remark.

"Agreed," Mikhael appeared ill at ease under Jenny's menacing glare.

"You should know better than to piss me off, Mikhael, especially today," Jenny added, before turning towards her agents. "I thought I asked you to check my phone calls," she said and McGee jumped on the first computer he could find.

Gibbs cleared his throat. He didn't like the strange feeling he got when he thought that, maybe, there was more between Jenny and this Nathan than mere friendship. This feeling looked a lot like jealousy and he didn't understand why he would feel jealous. Jenny could do whatever, or more like whoever, she wanted. He didn't care, right?

"DiNozzo and David, find Lieutenant Keith Jensen and inform him of his brother's demise, ask him why his brother had his car and who he was hanging around with. Talk to his CO… find something," he ordered and they left quickly, knowing time was the most important thing in this kind of case and they had already lost too much of it. "We're going to see Ducky," he added to Jenny and Mikhael, leading them out of the lab to let Abby and McGee work their magic.

"Do you have a picture of Hannah with you?" he asked, his tone almost gentle, and that could have worried Jenny if her mind wasn't miles away.

She shook her head 'no.' "Never, none of us; we don't want to risk it being found," she explained, her tone flat, almost like a robot.

Gibbs gripped her arm and forced her to look in his eyes. "Abby wasn't trying to reassure you earlier, we will find her." He really wanted to be sure she believed it.

"I know," she said and he could see the unasked question in her eyes - 'But will we find her in time?' He had no answer to that.

When they arrived in the autopsy suite, Ducky and Palmer were working on the Ensign's body.

"Ah, Jethro, Director, we're working as fast as we can and we already found several elements. Ensign Jensen had his throat cut before he was put on fire. Given the incision's depth, I would say a combat knife was used. I sent what was left of his clothes to Abby along with what appears to be skin and hair that we found under his fingernails. He put up quite a fight before his death. The defensive wounds lead me to believe his attacker probably has bruises and scratches," Ducky explained. Again, the lack of historical references showed the seriousness of the situation.

"Is there anything else, Duck?" Gibbs asked, as he glanced at Jenny, who was turning a little green.

"No, not for now. I'll call you," Ducky said. As they were leaving, he called out, "Director, can I talk to you for a short moment?"

Jenny closed her eyes and sighed; she knew what was about to be happen and, to be quite honest, she was surprised Gibbs hadn't been the first one to confront her.

"I'll join you upstairs," she said, as she saw Mikhael give Ducky a distrusting look.

Palmer, who got the message, followed Gibbs and Mikhael out.

"Doctor Mallard?" Jenny inquired, turning towards him.

"It would be useless to pretend I wasn't as surprised as the others to learn you hid such an important part of your life from us. I would have thought after finding out about Jethro's first wife and daughter, you wouldn't have wanted a repeat," Ducky declared in a gentle but firm tone.

"What is it you want to know, Doctor?" Jenny asked.

"I can understand you wanted to protect them but we could have helped you, had you told us," the medical examiner said.

"I don't have to justify myself or my decisions to you or to anyone else here, Doctor Mallard. It's not like we are friends, is it?" Jenny knew it was low but she didn't have much control of what she was saying, or rather, she didn't really care if her words hurt.

"I thought we were," Ducky seemed sincerely taken aback by her statement.

"Me too, but I realized quickly how wrong I was. Do you even remember the last time you called me Jenny or Jennifer, anything else than Director? Or the last time we went out for a walk to talk about anything and everything? Things changed when I became Director, and I don't know why, because I certainly didn't push you away. Tell me, why should I trust you with one of the things that matters the most to me when all I am for you is your boss? Now, excuse me, but I have to go and try to find my daughter," with that she left briskly and Ducky could only stare, hoping that it wasn't too late for her daughter and for their friendship.

Jenny was breathing rapidly as she got in the elevator. She hadn't wanted to reveal so much to Ducky but she had needed to lash out, relieve the pressure - and Ducky had been there.

When the elevator started its ascension, she flipped the switch off, sat in a corner and drew her knees to her chest. She just wanted a few moments alone, before going back to the madness her life had become. Finally pulling herself back together, she flipped the switch and kept her eyes closed until the doors opened.

Walking to the Team Gibbs' area in the bullpen, she saw Mikhael and Jethro waiting for her.

"Are we going somewhere?" she inquired.

"Your place. We need the pictures and McGee found out the call you got this morning was coming from a telephone box less than a street away from your place," Gibbs explained, before helping her into her coat.

She gave him a weird look but thought better than to ask what was going on with him.

* * *

><p>They hadn't really known what to expect, but if they hadn't known there had been a kidnapping in the house today, they never could have guessed. Everything was normal and, no matter how hard they looked, they didn't find any traces of the two men in the house.<p>

"Those men were pros," Mikhael said. "I hope they were more sloppy with the phone box."

But it was the same result; they took the prints without expecting much and went back to headquarters.

When Gibbs saw Hannah's picture, he got a shock. For a moment he had been about to ask Jenny what the hell was going on, before remembering she couldn't have hid a pregnancy. The little girl was Jenny's copy, from the hair to the eye color, even the nose shape was similar.

Jenny must have noticed his astonishment because she gave him another picture. On this one, a younger Jenny was standing next to another young woman, whom he guessed was Elizabeth, Hannah's mother. Elizabeth was a redhead too, about Jenny's height, blue eyes; the two could easily have been mistaken as sisters.

"Hannah has Jacob's eyes," Jenny declared, her voice slightly huskier than usual, her throat constricted with unshed tears.

When they got back to the Navy Yard, Tony and Ziva were there.

"We talked to the brother, Boss. He identified the Ensign in a photo; he will come tomorrow to see the body. He told us his brother borrowed his car to help his best friend move houses. The man is an ensign too. The two have the same C.O. We saw him; apparently Ensign Jensen and his friend went UA two days ago," Tony announced.

"What is the friend's name?" Gibbs asked impatiently.

"Quentin Graham, 27 years old. Apparently he and Jensen have know each other for about eight years - when Graham and his mother arrived in the Jensen brothers' neighborhood," Ziva answered, but both Jenny and Gibbs had frozen at the name. "Gibbs, Director?" Ziva asked, as she noticed they had stop listening to her.

"What do you know about him?" Jenny asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"He is the son of Desmond and Marina Graham. The Grahams were born in England and lived in the Czech Republic, until Desmond was condemned to a life sentence for human trafficking in 1999," Ziva explained and saw Jenny and Gibbs turn even more pale. "Then Martha and Quentin moved to the U.S. and Quentin enlisted a year later. Do you know them?"

Jenny looked sick as she nodded. "We gave the Czech police all the evidences against Desmond Graham. We investigated him after the daughter of a marine, based in Germany, disappeared; we followed a lead to the Czech Republic and found out about other girls. Desmond Graham had a whole crew of men who abducted young girls, usually blondes, white… He sold them and, if one of the girls tried to flee or to rebel, he would torture and kill her in front of the others to make an example. We had the feeling Quentin Graham was implicated in his father's business but we never found any proof against him. Excuse me," she said as she headed towards the bathroom.

Ziva followed her. She saw Jenny lean over a sink, trying to control her breathing, she was paler than ever. Ziva made sure that they were alone and came to stand next to her friend, her back to the sinks and mirrors.

"You do not look too good, Jenny. Do you want me to call Ducky?" Ziva asked, a worried frown on her face.

"No, no, not Ducky, the last thing I need right now is to see Ducky," Jenny answered.

"Did something happen?" Ziva knew Jenny pretty well, at least she thought she did, and she found it strange her friend would plainly refuse to see Ducky.

"Let's just say we had a difference of opinion on one or two things and leave it at that," Jenny replied curtly.

"You cannot blame him for being concerned, we all are. You caught us off-guard. The last thing we expected today was to learn that you have a child and hid her from us," Ziva told her.

"Is it that difficult to understand I was protecting her, that I couldn't tell anyone about her without taking a risk? We were five that knew about her, three of whom are biologically related to her and you can see what happened. I don't want to imagine what would have occurred if I had told anyone else," Jenny countered.

"But it is us, Jenny - the team, family. We are not strangers in an elevator to whom you would have let slipped you have a child," Ziva responded, exasperated.

"The difference is that I know you, they don't. They found the bodies of their loved ones, brutally murdered. The only thing left was Hannah; they don't want to take the risk to find her dead too. After that, I don't think anyone can blame them for not trusting strangers," Jenny said and before Ziva could find anything to retort, Gibbs opened the door and announced to them that Abby had found something.

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><p>What did you think? Please review :-)<p> 


	5. Chapter 5: Intervention

A/N: Thanks for reading, alerting, favoriting and a big hug to She-Demon Sparacino, jstapny and Pixie-Galaxy-Dust for their reviews. Thanks to JibbsGal1 for her help.

A lot of things happen in this chapter and you finally get to meet Hannah, you don't want to miss it :-D

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><p>Chapter 5: Intervention<p>

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><p><strong>October 10, 2007 6:20 pm<strong>

**Navy Yard, Washington D.C.**

They were back in Abby's lab. Jenny was still as pale as a ghost; she looked like she was ready to collapse at any moment and Gibbs was extremely worried. Not that he was showing it. He remembered what Desmond Graham had done to some of those girls in Europe; if his son was anything like him…

"What do you have, Abs?" he asked as soon as they set foot in the Goth's domain.

"I ran the DNA I found under the ensign's fingernails and I got a hit. The guy is Navy too…" she started but Gibbs interrupted her.

"We already know who he is, Abs, what we don't know is where he is," he said.

"You're spoiling all my fun, El Jefe. If you don't even let me surprise you with evidence, what am I going to do all day?" Abby was pouting, until she saw Jenny's expression. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she tried.

"Abby," Gibbs said, as he seized her by the shoulders, "Surprise us by giving us a location."

Abby nodded. "I analyzed the ensign's clothes, shoes, the SUV tires and I found traces of cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine or RDX, trinitrotoluene or TNT, and paraffin wax. The three combined form the "composition B" - it's an explosive, which was widely used during World War II and the early '50's, until it was replaced by less sensitive explosives. So I thought that maybe they had spent quite some time in an abandoned explosive factory. McGee and I looked for them in the perimeter around Sheperd Park and we found one on 3rd Street North East, it's about ten minutes from the Park," she explained all that so quickly they almost missed the conclusion.

"Boss, it's near the two ensigns' neighborhood, we can be there in less than fifteen minutes if you or Ziva drives," Tony said.

"What I do not understand is that why has he not already called to tell you what he wants? He is after revenge against you, yes? So why is he not trying to lure you to him?" Ziva asked and Jenny and Gibbs exchanged a look.

"He wants us to find him, to track him down, the same way we did with his father. We busted most of the crew in a warehouse but Desmond went in hiding, it took us more than a week to find him. He was playing with us, sending us on red herrings," Jenny recounted. Both she and Gibbs remembered how it had ended, with a round in the thigh for her and one in the shoulder for Desmond.

"Gear up, we need to act fast," Gibbs said and everyone started moving. The team leader grabbed Jenny's arm as she was following the group. "You're not going, Jen," he said, his tone leaving no room for any argument. But he had forgotten who he was talking to.

"She's my daughter, Jethro. There is no way I'm not going. I'm not some victim's family who doesn't know what they're talking about, who don't know the risks. What would you do if it was your daughter?" the moment the words had left her lips she knew she had gone too far, crossed an invisible line between them. Her eyes widened, as did the team's, who had stayed around, waiting to see what happened.

"I'm sorry, Jethro…" she said but he cut her off.

"Sign of weakness," he replied, turning around to leave. It was Jenny's turn to grab Gibbs' arm.

"Well, then I'm weak. I shouldn't have said it and I'm sorry. But you, better than anyone, can understand. Hannah is my daughter, maybe not biologically, but I'm the only mom she knows. You can't ask me to stay here and do nothing while you're trying to save her," Jenny said. Her eyes locked with his, trying to show him how important this was for her; they had always been able to say more with their eyes than with words.

The team was holding their collective breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop, and they were absolutely astounded to see Gibbs nod and lead Jenny and Mikhael to the elevator. Tony, Ziva and McGee looked at each other, their expression saying, 'Did we miss something?'

* * *

><p>After having studied the layout of the factory and its vicinities, they left quickly and arrived there in no time.<p>

Gibbs had overcome his reluctance about Jenny's presence and had decided to let her go in and try to talk Graham into releasing Hannah. Indicating to the team their positions, he exchanged one last look with Jenny and watched her enter the warehouse.

Taking a deep breath, Jenny made her way inside and let Hannah's cries guide her. The closer she got, the more she was clenching her fists. Hannah was a smiling child; she rarely cried and it was awful for Jenny to hear her howl like this.

"Agent Shepard, excuse me, I mean Director. You climbed up the ladder awfully fast, it's a little difficult to follow," Graham said, mockingly as soon as Jenny appeared, and he pointed his gun towards her.

"You kidnapped my daughter just to talk to me about my ascension to the top of NCIS' hierarchy?" Jenny replied and Hannah's cries stopped at once.

"Mamma?" the baby girl asked as she hauled herself up in the old playpen Graham had put her in. "Mamma!" she exclaimed, when she finally saw her mom.

Jenny smiled reassuringly at her but Graham started talking again before she could say anything to her daughter.

"Isn't this cute? I would have expected to see Agent Gibbs with you, after all, you were so inseparable at the time, such adorable lovebirds."

"He doesn't know I'm here, I came alone," Jenny answered, ignoring the mockery.

"You really expect me to believe that? The Director of NCIS coming to meet a criminal on her own, without any backup. Where are they?" he said, looking around.

"I told you, I came alone. No one knows about my daughter or who the man you attacked is. I couldn't risk having them found," Jenny explained.

"Yeah, I was a little surprised too when I learned about them. I observed you for a long time, Agent Gibbs and you. I couldn't really believe it when I saw you had a whole troop of men and a child in your house while Gibbs was sleeping with some blonde. What's her name again? Ah, yeah, Lieutenant Colonel Hollis Mann. Personally, I think he lost out, but that's just my opinion," Graham declared as he gave her a once over.

"What do you want, Quentin?" Jenny asked, trying to ignore everything he said.

"I think that's quite obvious. I want you and Agent Gibbs to pay for what you did to my father," he stated.

"Why?" she asked. "You think we falsely accused him, set him up? He shot me, I took a round in the thigh because of your father. He was a criminal; he abducted, sold, tortured and killed innocent girls…" she said.

"Don't talk about my father like that! You don't know anything about him," he yelled.

"I know enough to recognize him in you. You use the same methods," Jenny replied, her tone calm enough to prevent Hannah from crying again.

"I …" for the first time, Quentin seemed to be out of words.

"I know what it is to want revenge, what it is to be consumed by it. I've been there, for more than ten years my whole life was driven by this need to get revenge and I lost so much because of it," Jenny stated. It wasn't exactly the whole truth but she had had to pretend it for so long she wasn't feeling like it was a lie. "Your mother brought you here to start over; you shouldn't ruin your life by doing this. It won't change anything for your father, and you won't feel any better. I'm sure you didn't enlist in the Navy to do this."

"Keith and Ryan convinced me to enlist. Their father was killed by a stray bullet, an innocent victim of a war between gangs and they were so angry at the world because of it, they did some pretty stupid things. The Navy helped them and it worked for me. But, once, I saw you on TV, and everything came back, I went mad. I lied to Ryan, told him I wanted to scare a guy from a gang who had threatened my mother. I knew he would buy it. When he understood what was going on, he tried to call the cops but I … I killed him," he seemed to realize only now what he had done. "I killed my best friend," he started repeating it, over and over, and Jenny saw he was releasing his grip on the gun.

"Quentin, you have a chance to stop all this now. The judge will be more lenient if you do." Jenny knew that wouldn't be the case; he had killed a man, wounded another and kidnapped a child after all, but Graham seemed so out of it, she wasn't sure he would understand it.

He focused his eyes on hers and she remembered what Noemi had told them _'icy, steely even, blue-grey eyes'_ and she suppressed a shiver. He nodded slowly and put his gun down, Jenny carefully took it and approached the playpen. Hannah was already holding her arms out to her and Jenny pressed her lips tightly to stifle the sob that threatened to escape as she embraced the baby girl. She checked her out for any injuries and Quentin said, " I would have never harmed her." Jenny nodded at him as the team moved towards them.

DiNozzo read him his Miranda rights and asked him if he understood them as he cuffed him and Graham nodded, his gaze still fixed on Jenny and Hannah.

The NCIS Director gave the gun and the recorder to McGee so he could bag and tag them.

As Tony and McGee were walking their prisoner out, Mikhael closed the distance between him and Jenny. Hannah immediately turned her attention to him and patted his cheek.

"O right?" she asked, confused to see him so upset. Her question made Mikhael and Jenny laugh.

"Yes, honey, everything is alright now," he answered, smiling at her. She smiled back and then buried her head in Jenny's neck when she noticed the strangers.

"She okay?" Gibbs asked, laying a hand on the small of Jenny's back.

"She seems to be but I think we should bring her to the hospital just in case," Jenny replied. "Hey, sweetheart, since when are you so shy? These people are friends, don't worry," she told Hannah and the little girl raised her head a little, fixing her eyes on Gibbs.

She put her hand just under his right eye and stated, "Blue, pretty blue eyes,"

Both Jenny and Gibbs smiled at that. "This is Jethro; can you say Jethro?" Jenny asked.

"Jet-ro, Jet-ro?" Hannah tried but she shook her head. "No, no Jet-ro."

Jenny laughed, "Then, do you prefer Gibbs?"

"Jibbs? Jibbs!" Hannah exclaimed, smiling and she patted Gibbs' cheek too. "Nice Jibbs." She said, her eyes widening when Gibbs pressed a light kiss to her palm.

"Jibbs, it is then," Jen said, her eyes softening at the scene. "And here is Ziva."

Hannah turned towards the former Mossad officer; she traced a line on her face and then zeroed her gaze on her NCIS hat. Taking it, she put it on her own head.

"It looks good on you, honey, but Ziva is gonna need her hat," Jenny said but Ziva shook her head.

"She can keep it."

"And here comes the new generation of NCIS agents," Gibbs declared solemnly.

* * *

><p>Abraham had cleared a waiting room next to Nathan's hospital room for them after he had checked Hannah over.<p>

"Has he woken up yet?" Jenny asked.

"No, not yet but I'm not worried; he should wake during the night," Abraham answered.

"I'm gonna stay with him," Mikhael announced.

"Who will stay with Jenny and Hannah? I'm on call," Abraham said.

"We're just gonna go back to the Yard. I don't feel like going home anyway," Jenny answered, shrugging.

"You could stay with me," Gibbs suggested, and the family almost got a collective whiplash as they looked at him.

"I'm not sure …" Jenny started but Mikhael interrupted her.

"I would rather you stay with him than at the Yard, Jenny," and Abraham approved by a nod.

Jenny sighed and looked down at Hannah, who was happily playing with her hat.

"Hannah, do you want us to stay with Jethro?" she asked her, and Hannah raised her head.

"Jibbs? Nice Jibbs," she answered, nodding.

"See, even Hannah agrees," Mikhael said and Jenny glared at him.

"Okay, since everyone is against me," she declared dramatically, as she stood up and seized the overnight bag Noemi had brought for them. "Let's go."

Gibbs took the bag from her and led them out.

The drive was silent. The moment they set foot in the house, Hannah asked to be put down and started exploring.

"Mamma," she shrieked and ran back from the living room to her mom.

As they rounded the corner they understood at once what had frightened her. There, on the couch, were Stephanie and Hollis Mann, who were watching them.

"I won't say 'I told you so.' Oops," Jenny added as Gibbs glared at her.

"Go upstairs, you're dead on your feet," Gibbs all but ordered.

"Jethro, I think I should just go back to the Yard as I intended to…" she said.

"So the Marx brothers can kill me, I don't think so. Go upstairs," Gibbs insisted.

Jenny finally yielded and turned towards the stairs.

"Bye Jibbs," Hannah waved at him and Gibbs waved back.

Facing the two other women, he decided to solve the easiest problem first and he addressed Stephanie.

"Hello, Stephanie."

"Still not locking your front door, Jethro," she said, as she stood up. "I just came by to give you these. I found them in a drawer about six years ago," she handed him his old dog tags.

"I thought I lost them," he replied.

Stephanie glanced at Hollis and said, "I'm not staying, so …"

"I'll walk you out," Gibbs told her.

They talked on the way to the car and they parted with the feeling they had gotten some closure; Stephanie hadn't been his worst ex-wife, far from it and she had had some pretty big shoes to fill. It was pretty much doomed from the start; she deserved at least some sincerity.

"We will always have Moscow," had been Stephanie's last words before she left for a fresh start in Philadelphia. It had made Gibbs smile before he remembered what he had yet to face in the house.

Taking a deep breath, he went back to the living room. Hollis hadn't moved; he had been slightly worried she would try and talk to Jen but she seemed more resigned and tired than angry.

"Can you tell me what's going on?" she demanded.

"It's been a long day, can we postpone this until tomorrow?" Gibbs tried but he knew Hollis; she wouldn't take that for an answer.

"Your Director is in your bedroom, with a child who looks a hell of a lot like her. You told her to go there and you want me to just leave it at that and don't ask any question?" Hollis summed up in disbelief.

"Okay, before I tell you anything, if someone asks you, we never had this conversation. You don't know anything, you hear me?" Gibbs said, approaching her.

"Alright, just explain to me," she agreed with a shrug.

"It's her goddaughter. The little girl you saw, she is the Director's goddaughter. Today she was kidnapped, from the Director's house, by the son of a man she arrested years ago. That's why she left earlier. When we understood what was going on, we helped her. She didn't want to be alone at home; she was about to spend the night in her office when I proposed she stayed here," Gibbs didn't remember the last time he had said so many words at once.

Hollis was standing there, in shock. "I see," she said at last. "I'm just gonna leave and we will talk about this tomorrow." Gibbs could see she was trying to wrap her mind around what he told her and she wanted to be alone to do it. She was apparently reading a lot into what he said.

He didn't even try to stop her from leaving; even if he had wanted to, it wouldn't have worked.

Remembering Jenny's obsession with locked doors, he locked his for the first time in years. Entering his room, he was about to ask Jenny if she was comfortable when he noticed both her and Hannah were sound asleep.

Jenny had surrounded Hannah with all the pillows she could find, to prevent her from falling, she had snuggled her in a blanket and was lying on her side upon it. This way she would know if Hannah moved.

Gibbs put another blanket on Jenny, and she opened her eyes.

"Jethro, could you lock your front door, please?" her voice was heavy with sleep, he could barely hear her.

"Already did, Jen."

She smiled sleepily. "Thank you. You can stay if you want. It's your bed after all," she added as she saw him heading towards the door. "I mean if you want to."

Gibbs could understand why she didn't want to stay alone that night, and he didn't see anything wrong in indulging her. _Who_ _are you kidding? You wouldn't stay there if you didn't want to_. He heard an annoying little voice talk in his head.

Ignoring it, he lay down on the other side of the bed, facing her and watched them sleep for a while before he succumbed to it as well. Tomorrow, he would have a long talk with Jenny. Tomorrow.

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><p>Gibbs is going to have a very busy day :-D<p>

As Hannah would say, there is a pretty blue button below, use it before leaving :-D


	6. Chapter 6: A Lifetime Ago

A/N: My muse seems to be focused on Train wreck right now, so I'm putting Implicit rule on hold until I can work it out.

Thanks to those who read, alert ... this story and thanks so much to Miss Jayne, jstapny and She-Demon Sparacino who reviewed every single chapters :-)

As I said Gibbs is going to have a very busy day so put on your seat belt. ;-D

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><p>Chapter 6: A Lifetime Ago<p>

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><p><strong>October 11, 2007 6:00 am<strong>

**Gibbs' residence, Alexandria, Virginia.**

The next morning, Gibbs awoke with the sensation of pressure on his chest. He opened his eyes and found himself looking at a pair of wide, curious, intense green eyes and a toothy grin.

Hannah had somehow disentangled herself from the blanket and was sitting on his chest, watching him with interest. Gibbs was about to say 'Good morning' when Hannah put a hand on his mouth and looked down at her mom, still completely out.

"Shhh," the little girl whispered and he nodded, making her smile and patting his cheek once again.

Carefully, Gibbs stood up, putting his hands protectively around Hannah. Taking the overnight bag, he silently left the room, checking Jenny was still asleep.

He brought the baby girl in the bathroom to change her, and, showing her a dress, discovered she already had a strong opinion of what she wanted to wear as she crossed her arms and turned her head away with a determined 'No.' Finally, they agreed on a yellow top and blue jeans.

Then, stopping in the kitchen, he started a pot of coffee, knowing that both he and Jen would need it to gather their wits; Hannah was observing her surroundings with wide eyes.

Noemi had apparently thought of everything since she had even packed some Tupperware boxes for Hannah's meals. Some compote, with bread and milk seemed to satisfy the little redhead, who ate everything while happily humming to herself.

Gibbs was trying to act as automatically as possible; it had been a while since the last time he took care of a child in his house. The last one had been Zachary, whose father had been abducted, a couple of years ago. Zach had already roused memories of Kelly, but now it was different. The resemblance between Hannah and Kelly, at the same age, was almost overwhelming. He couldn't get over the way Jenny's goddaughter had taken to him. She had only met him the day before and she already liked him.

He felt a tug at his neck and looked down. Hannah was pulling on his newly reacquired dog tags.

"You want them?" he asked as she seemed to get frustrated when they didn't come off his collar and she nodded. He put them around her little neck and she examined them attentively, frowning in concentration. "Will you give them back later?" he inquired and, in return, received a Jenny glare that told him all he needed to know.

After a moment, she got bored and turned back towards him. "Mamma?" she demanded.

Gibbs looked at his watch, an hour and a half had passed since Hannah had woke him up. He nodded at her and carried her back upstairs.

Opening his bedroom door, he saw Jenny sat up in the bed, looking around. She seemed to have just woken up and was probably wondering why she was alone. Her head snapped towards them the moment they entered.

Hannah was agitating her legs so Gibbs put her down and she raced to the bed. Jenny hugged the girl to her, showering her with kisses, eliciting happy giggles from Hannah.

"She stole your dog tags?" Jenny asked, raising her eyebrows.

"More like gently asked for them," Gibbs answered and Jenny's eyebrows raised even higher.

"Yeah, right, I will pretend to believe that," she replied, amused. "Is it coffee I'm smelling?" she asked as a change of subject, to which Gibbs quirked an eyebrow in a 'What do you think?' way. "I'm just going to freshen up. Where is the bag?"

"Living room - I'll bring it to you."

"Thanks, Jethro. And thanks for taking care of her."

"You needed the rest," Gibbs answered, shrugging, as if it was no big deal and left the room.

About thirty minutes later, they were both sitting at the kitchen table, each holding a cup of coffee. Gibbs noticed Jenny's eyes were never straying away from Hannah, who was playing in the living room, as if she was afraid the girl would vanish if she blinked. He could understand how she felt and he knew it would take a while before she stopped feeling anguish at the thought of Hannah away from her, if she ever did.

Studying her, he could see she was trying to collect her thoughts and he waited for her to start talking.

"The day my father died I was coming back from Israel. I had spent a few days there for Elizabeth and Jacob's wedding. Because of the investigation, my father couldn't come and they had wanted to postpone it for him but he refused. The moment I entered the house, I knew something was wrong and when I came in the study…" she stopped at this and he put a hand on hers, comfortingly, trying to ground her. She gulped back her tears and continued.

"They ruled it as a suicide but I knew he would have never done that to me. I called Abraham and they took the first plane. I don't know what I would have done without them. Abraham knew a little about La Grenouille and he told me all he remembered. I tried to investigate, to prove that he had killed my father but I didn't have enough resources. That's when I decided to join NCIS. What I didn't know, at the time, is that Nathan was doing some research too, but he wasn't using the same methods. He wasn't as discreet. He didn't understand what I was doing, he just wanted to help me," she looked at him at that point and answered his unasked question.

"Nathan and Jacob's parents were Mossad too. They were sent on a mission in Iran when Nathan was about fifteen. When they came back to Israel, they thought they covered their tracks well, but one day, when Nathan and Jacob came back from school, they found their parents dead in the house. Nathan chased their murderers. He tortured them and killed them; then he joined Mossad and became one of their best coercion specialists. He has always been impulsive, that's why he never worked alone, too risky. I think he wanted to protect me by putting himself on the line but it backfired. Once, there was an ambush, a firefight; Naomi, Abraham's wife, was killed. They called me, asked for my help. That was in 1999, December 1999," Gibbs' eyes widened at that, he hadn't expected that at all.

"I couldn't tell you, I couldn't tell anyone. I accepted Morrow's offer and asked for a few days before heading for my new assignment. I found them a safe place in Sicily, at least it was a safe place for more than six years. A few days after you left for Mexico, I found Abraham, Mikhael, Nathan and Hannah on my doorstep. La Grenouille's men had found them; they murdered Elizabeth and Jacob," Jenny took another pause to keep the tears at bay and Gibbs looked at Hannah, wondering what would have happened to the little girl if all her family had been killed, wondering if the ones who had ended her parents' lives would have done the ame with her.

"I called Eli David, told him I was worried I hadn't heard from them in a while and asked him to send some people to the safehouse. They found the bodies and assumed Abraham, Mikhael and Nathan were dead too. After that, things got complicated. The guys didn't care anymore about what could happen to them and they were out for blood. I tried to make them understand I was doing everything I could to put Benoit behind bars but they didn't give a damn. I tried to find a compromise and that's when we got the idea of the undercover mission. Abraham was adamant about using Jeanne; a daughter for a daughter, he said. At first, it went well, as well as it could at least, but when you came back I knew it wouldn't be long before you learned about Tony's assignment and tried to understand what was going on. I had to make you, and everyone else, believe I was alone in this…"

"So you started drinking in front of us, throwing fits, you wanted us to think you were out of control. And that's why you were becoming more desperate each time we failed to arrest him legally," Gibbs interrupted and supplied for her.

Jenny nodded. "Their patience was wearing thin and they were starting to blame me. It had to stop. I never wanted this to go so far, I was just trying to prevent them from getting killed too."

"Where is Benoit?" Gibbs asked, his tone as gentle as possible and, when Jenny raised her head and locked eyes with him, he could see the answer there. "You didn't …"

"No, not me. I never wanted him dead. I wanted him to rot in jail," she sighed before continuing. "Nathan did it. I didn't even try to stop him, it would have been useless."

Gibbs nodded, still a little dazed by all this. It was a lot to take in, all his certitudes from the past seven years had just blown up, leaving him to wonder how he could have missed so much. But it was Jenny, she knew him better than anyone. She had known exactly what she had to do when she left Paris, had ensured he would be too angry to go after her; then she had used his hostility against her to make him see what she needed him to see - a woman who had hurt him, who was using his team for her own agenda and who was slowly getting out of control. He had to admit her performance had been amazing, but he had no doubt it had cost her.

An agitated knock on the door prevented him from replying and put an end to this painful conversation.

As he headed towards the door, Hannah followed him and she looked up at the newcomers from between his legs. She was almost knocked to the ground when Abby crushed Gibbs in one of her famous hugs.

"Abs, careful," Gibbs said, indicating Hannah. The Goth looked at the little redhead, who was studying her, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"Is it her? Is it Hannah?" Abby asked, excitedly.

Having recognized her name, the little girl said, "Me, Hannah, me," pointing proudly to herself.

Abby crouched in front of Hannah and replied "Me, Abby," also pointing to herself.

"A-by," Hannah repeated. "Abby," she said more assuredly and smiled. She liked the sound of it. In an approval gesture, she tugged on one of Abby's pigtails and then turned back towards Gibbs. "Jibbs, up," she demanded and the Marine executed the order. Turning her attention to Ducky, who was still on the doorstep, she tilted her head to the side, deciding whether or not she should be afraid of him. She seemed to give him the benefit of the doubt because she let him approach and introduce himself to her.

"Hello, young lady. I'm Ducky. I'm glad to finally meet you."

Hannah's eyes lit up at the name, "Duck?" she asked and wiggling to be put down, she ran towards the overnight bag and pulled out a yellow rubber duck she used in her bath. She raced back to them, and gave the duck to Ducky when she was once again in Gibbs' arms. "Duck," she said, looking triumphant and then confused when the adults laughed.

"Thank you, Miss Hannah, for this wonderful present," Ducky said and was rewarded by one of the baby girl's most beautiful smiles.

Jenny, who had observed the scene, finally approached them and received another Abby hug, less bone crushing than the last one. Hannah immediately went to her mom's arms and, pointing to her two new friends, made the introductions. "Abby, Mamma. Mamma, Duck."

"Very good, honey," Jenny praised and Hannah buried her face in her neck, giggling.

They all went back in the kitchen and Ducky asked, indicating the hat Hannah had put on. "Isn't she a bit young to become an NCIS agent?"

"Oh no, look at her Ducky, she's so adorable. She could totally be our new mascot, that would be awesome!" Abby replied in her usual, caffeine high induced tone.

Gibbs snorted at Jenny's horrified expression, and he carefully chose to change the subject.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"We wanted to meet Hannah, all the others had. She really is a cutie, Director. She will break hearts later," Abby said, smiling happily.

Gibbs coughed something that, to Jenny's ears, sounded awfully similar to 'Like Mother, Like Daughter,' to which she retaliated by crushing his foot, making Gibbs stifle a curse.

"Thank you, Abby, and it's Jenny. We're not in the office right now, even if I know Jethro's house can look like an interrogation room or a jail cell sometimes," Jenny told the Goth, while flashing an innocent smile and batting her eyelashes in response to Gibbs' growl.

Ducky was observing and analyzing all this. The two former partners seemed more comfortable around each other, like some weight had been taken off them, especially Jenny. She looked relaxed, calm and she was smiling in a way he didn't remember seeing in years. He didn't know what had taken place before their arrival but he was fairly sure they were at a turning point right now, whether they were realizing it or not.

He had also seen the way Hannah acted with Jethro. She trusted him to protect her, the same way she did with her mother. Ziva had recounted Hannah and Jethro's meeting - after Abby and Tony had harassed her for details - and the way the little girl had been drawn by Jethro's eyes, 'Like mother, like daughter" indeed, he thought. Hannah would be a decisive factor in whatever decision Jenny would take for the future.

He wondered how Jethro was coping with having a child in the very same house he brought up his now deceased daughter, and, from the looks Jenny was sometimes sending Gibbs' way, he wasn't the only one worrying.

Listening to Abby ranting about the way she should have known the DIA guy, who had been sent to oversee her work, was their culprit, they didn't hear Colonel Hollis Mann enter. It was only when she cleared her throat that they finally noticed her, well, Gibbs probably knew she was there the moment he heard her car but he had chosen not to acknowledge her.

"Hollis," Gibbs greeted, with a slight nod and she nodded back, seeming ill at ease.

"I think we should go to the hospital. Nathan is probably awake and worrying, I wouldn't want him to do something stupid. Ducky, could you drive us there?" Jenny announced as she stood up.

Noting the increasing tension in the room, Ducky agreed without hesitation and collected the overnight bag while Jenny was helping Hannah with her coat. Before Jenny could recapture her goddaughter in her arms, Hannah was already running off to Gibbs.

"Jibbs come?" she asked him and pouted when he shook his head.

"But I will see you very soon," Gibbs promised her, his heart melting slightly when she smiled happily.

"Hug?" she requested and Gibbs took her in his arms. "Nice Jibbs," Hannah said, kissing his cheek. She went back to her mother, gripped her hand and tugged her. Jenny shook her head to get her bearings back and followed her goddaughter's lead, remembering she would have to pick up Hannah 's seat from Jethro's car. She exchanged one last look with Jethro and left.

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything," Hollis said, after a minute of silence.

"Do you want some coffee?" Gibbs asked her, ignoring what she said.

Hollis sighed and nodded, before sitting down at the kitchen table. When he joined her, she took a deep breath and began.

"Last night, I had a lot to think about. I won't lie to you, I was hurt when I learned about your first wife and daughter. I thought I had earned your trust. But I could have overcome that, if you had been honest with me. You didn't put their deaths behind you, it's still haunting you, and I don't see why you want to hide it. Everyone has ghosts in their past and acknowledging them is better than denying them. I know you are a private person, that it's difficult for you to talk about your feelings but I thought I deserved that you at least try. Yesterday, I realized it wasn't only the ghosts of your past, there are also ghosts in your present. You told me you and your Director had worked together before, but it's far more than that, isn't it?"

Gibbs knew where this was going and, after the conversation he had had with Jenny, he couldn't really find it in him to care.

"She was my partner, I trusted her with my life, that's all," he said.

"That's all? It's huge, Jethro. The two of you have this special bond, this special relationship. At first, I thought it was just friendship, that you liked to tease each other, but, after a while, I saw that you were hurting each other, tearing the other apart with words as a weapon. I don't know what happened between you two, and I don't think you would tell me anyway, but she knows you, she understands you. When we were trying to arrest Sharif, she saw you weren't okay, and, even after you blew her off, she asked for my help, told me to keep an eye on you and I didn't listen to her," Gibbs' attention raised a little, he hadn't known that, but then he hadn't really cared either.

"There is history there, a history you can't let go off. I can accept some ghosts of your past but I can't fight against ghosts who sit at your kitchen table, spend the night in your house and the day in the same office with you. I postponed my retirement because I thought we had a chance to build up something together and I was wrong, blind even. It wouldn't be fair to any of us if I stayed," her hands were clenched tightly around her cup of coffee and she gulped nervously at the end of her speech.

She was right, on every account. Gibbs knew it, but it didn't make it any easier to have it thrown back at your face. He had really tried. Hollis was different from the other women he had been with; in a way it was easier, he couldn't associate her to any painful memories. The problem was that their interactions at work had provoked a reaction from Jen and he hadn't been able to stop himself from flaunting his new relationship to her and he had ended up hurting them both.

Hollis didn't deserve that, she had just wanted to be with him. She hadn't signed up to be a trophy and he should have been honest much earlier, he shouldn't have stopped her from leaving for Hawaii.

"Someone very wise once told me it took strength to apologize, so I'm sorry, Hollis," he offered after a while and she gave him a weak smile. "I hope you will be happy in your new life," he added, squeezing her hand slightly.

"I hope you will be too," Hollis said as she stood up and left.

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><p>AN: I must be honest, at first I hadn't planned to let Hollis go so gracefully, especially since I started this chapter after watching Sharif's return and, no matter how many times I've seen it, the episode still royally pisses me off. However, my muse had other ideas and it gets mad when I don't listen to it.

PLease review and tell me if this story interests you and if you want me to continue.


	7. Chapter 7: Rapprochement

A/N: My muse is still focused on Train wreck, I'm gonna have to kick her ass soon. Lucky you, you get another chapter :-D

Anyway, a huge thanks to jstapny, ILuvMonkeys, Jaws 0178, left my heart in paris and She-Demon Sparacino for their amazing reviews, I lobe you guys :-D

and of course thanks to those who read, alert, favorite ... :-)

You get more Hannah and, dare I say it, more Jibbs

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><p>Chapter 7: Rapprochement<p>

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><p><strong>October 11, 2007 11:00 am<strong>

**Georgetown University Hospital**

_"Someone very wise once told me it took strength to apologize, so I'm sorry, Hollis," he offered after a while, and she gave him a weak smile. "I hope you will be happy in your new life," he added, squeezing her hand slightly._

_"I hope you will be too," Hollis said as she stood up and left._

Gibbs sat there for a moment, scrubbing his face with his hands. He had been expecting this and he was relieved it had ended amicably, without a baseball bat or golf club.

He needed to clear his head. Locking the door behind him, he left without any goal as to where he would go. Mechanically, he drove around for a while and found himself finally parking at Georgetown University Hospital. He stayed there, seated in his car, for a moment, wondering if it was a good idea to go and see Jenny. In the end, the urge to make sure she was okay was stronger and he entered the hospital.

When he arrived in front of Nathan's hospital room, the man was awake, with Hannah snuggled up against him and Jenny sitting on the bed, her back to the door. Gibbs was observing Nathan. Large, athletic, tanned - he had a scar on his right cheek, short, dark hair and grey eyes, which, right now, were fixed on Jenny, following her every move.

"There is nothing going on between them, Agent Gibbs, don't worry," Mikhael stated as he appeared beside him. "Even if I'm sure Nathan wouldn't have objected if Jenny had wanted to. But then, who can blame him? He and Jacob shared a weakness for redheads, I heard you have the same," Mikhael elaborated when Gibbs raised his eyebrows. "We know a lot about you, things that she doesn't know and doesn't want to; we have this habit of always getting a lot of information on the people she spends a lot of time with. We never know when it can come in handy."

"Are you going to warn me off?" Gibbs asked, not knowing whether to be amused or annoyed.

"Oh no, she runs her life the way she wants to and we're not crazy enough to try to control her. No, I'm just giving you the usual warning, you know the, 'if you hurt her, we will hunt you until you're dead' speech. I don't like seeing Jenny upset, none of us does, and I have to admit, lately, we did upset her but so did you. Be careful with her, the last few months weren't easy."

At that moment, Nathan noticed them and Jenny turned around. She motioned for them to come in.

"So, this is the Very Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs," Nathan greeted, studying him.

"Gibbs will do," the NCIS agent replied and the two men shook hands.

"Well, Gibbs will do, thank you for helping Jenny find Hannah, you didn't have to."

Gibbs simply nodded, never one to gloat over praises.

"You should get some rest, we will come back tomorrow," Jenny said and Nathan looked between the director and her agent, squinting, feeling that something was amiss.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to piss Abraham off by going against the doctor's orders, would we?" Nathan asked rhetorically.

"Be nice to the nurses," Jenny told him before kissing his cheek.

"Yes, Mommy," Nathan's reply made Hannah laugh and Jenny roll her eyes.

"I didn't sign up for two children," she muttered as she took a giggling Hannah back in her arms and headed to the door.

"I heard that," Nathan yelled after her.

"Is he always like this?" Gibbs asked, curious.

"Actually, he must still be a little tired. He was less snarky than usual and it must be the first time I heard him thanking anyone," Jenny answered with a giant smile before becoming serious again. "Is everything alright? We can leave if you and Hollis need …" Gibbs didn't give her a chance to finish.

"No, you don't have to leave. Hollis and I, we sorted things out and decided that it was best for both of us if we ended things now and went our separate ways," he explained, nodding at the end, satisfied with the way he had worded it.

"Did you just give me a diplomatic answer?" Jenny asked, her eyebrows raised very, very high and Gibbs gave her one of his best boyish smiles.

"I think I don't know you anymore," Jenny said in disbelief, shaking her head.

"So, are you staying tonight?" he inquired more seriously.

"If you want us there. Tomorrow, I have a meeting with SecNav and Metro P.D. and a few others to 'sort things out'," she announced, quoting him. "It seems I have some explaining to do."

"It will be alright, you were just trying to keep your daughter alive. They can't exactly arrest you for that," Gibbs said, placing a comforting hand at the small of her back.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say you were trying to be nice," Jenny commented, smirking.

"But you do know better," Gibbs smirked back.

He hadn't realized how much he had missed their friendship. The past year had them drifting further and further away from each other and they had done nothing to stop it. Maybe, this was their chance to find their way back to one another.

That night, for the first time in a long time, they talked and laughed together. Gibbs learned more about Hannah and, in turn, let one or two things escape about Kelly. He appreciated that Jenny didn't call him on it, she just accepted whatever he decided to tell her and offered him her support when she could see he was choking on the words.

Again, they slept on the bed, Hannah between them and it hit Gibbs that he hadn't felt the urge to drink himself to sleep or stay alone with his boat at all during the evening.

At some point during the night, Gibbs woke up and found the other side of the bed empty; Hannah was still there, sound asleep, but Jenny wasn't. Sitting up, he saw her standing at the window, looking outside, the same way she usually did in her office.

As he approached her, she murmured. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

"You didn't. Trouble sleeping?"

She shook her head. "Nightmare."

"You want to talk about it?"

She looked at him, her eyes widening. "Okay, I'm really getting worried."

"Hey, I asked you if you wanted to talk about it, I never said anything about me."

Jenny, mockingly, sighed in relief. "Thanks for clarifying that, you really scared me."

"Remind me to never ask that again," Gibbs muttered and Jenny smiled at him.

"No, it was thoughtful, just unexpected."

"Are you going back to bed?"

Jenny chuckled slightly as Gibbs seemed shocked by his own words. "I don't remember the last time someone asked me that," she remarked, sighing.

Gibbs was about to say that he wouldn't have had any problems being the one in her bed but she had said no off the job, however Jenny beat him to it and put her hand on his mouth.

"Don't. We both know why I had to say what I said and it wasn't like you were serious anyway."

"What makes you so sure?" Gibbs asked, as he took her hand from his mouth, his tone making Jenny pause.

"Really, Jethro? You're telling me that after the way I left you, you would have accepted me back just like that? Since when are you so forgiving?"

"What I mean is that you never tried to know if that was what I wanted, you assumed. There is a rule against that," Gibbs was so close to her that Jenny could feel every word he breathed on her face.

"If I had thought there was just a slight chance for you to forgive me, I wouldn't have let it slip through my fingers, believe me. I thought we were reconnecting but after the explosion, it seemed that you couldn't stand to be in the same room with me and then there was …" Jenny's voice was barely audible but Gibbs could feel the emotion in her words and he seized her chin to make her look in his eyes. The intensity in them made her take a sharp breath and try to look away but he didn't let her.

He had always been better at showing what he felt than saying it, so slowly, to give her time to pull away if she wanted to, he bent his head and kissed her, deepening it when she put her hands around his neck.

"Never take anything for granted," he told her when the need for oxygen became too strong and he felt her smile against his chest. They stayed like this for a while until he could feel her lean more and more on him.

"You should go back to sleep," he said and she nodded. Tugging him with her, she laid back down. They clasped one of their hands together over Hannah and Jenny fell back asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, a small smile on her lips.

Gibbs, however, stayed awake and watched them, thinking about the events of the past forty-eight hours. He felt like everything had changed, like his world had turned on its axis but it wasn't exactly what had happened. He had simply discovered things that had been kept in the dark, things that made the events of the last few years make a lot more sense.

He wondered how long it would take before Jenny questioned what just happened, before she would start avoiding him, thinking she was a rebound for Hollis; as if Jennifer Shepard could be the rebound for anyone!

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><p><strong>October 12, 2007 7:00 am<strong>

**Gibbs' residence, Alexandria, Virginia**

A few hours later, Gibbs was in the kitchen, holding Hannah, while Jenny was trying to pack the overnight bag. 'Trying' being the key word; she kept dropping things and, looking more closely, he understood it was because her hands were shaking. That coupled with the fact she had barely uttered two words since she woke up an hour earlier told him she was a nervous wreck; he wasn't sure if it was because of him or because of the day she had to face, but, either way, it had to stop right now.

Putting a finger on Hannah's lips so she would be silent, he approached Jenny; she literally jumped out of her skin when she noticed him standing right behind her and he had to put an arm around her waist to prevent her from falling.

"What's going on, Jen?" he asked gently and frowned when she avoided his gaze. "Is it because of what happened last night?" he heard her suck in a breath and knew he had been right.

"I thought I imagined it. Don't mock me," she said, slapping him slightly on the chest as he laughed.

"I'm not mocking you, I was just thinking how I should have known before I could get you all worked up with a simple kiss."

"It's not funny, Jethro. I'm not sure this is such a good idea," Jenny whispered, avoiding his gaze again, and he could have deflated if he hadn't been waiting for it.

"Uh, huh, and what could possibly make you think that?" he asked.

"Jethro, you broke up with Hollis yesterday. You were with her for months. You can't possibly tell me it doesn't affect you; you need time to process this and you can't do it with us right here," Jen was ranting and Gibbs used the only efficient way he knew to shut her up and kissed her.

It wasn't long before Hannah separated them with a resounding, 'yuck,' making them laugh.

"Look, Jen, you know I'm not good at that kind of stuff but do you really think I would be here with you if I weren't sure about this, if it wasn't what I wanted?" Gibbs told her and she had to agree with him. He wasn't the kind of man who pretended in his love life, and he had made enough mistakes to be -a little- more careful. "Okay, so now you take a deep breath and you stop shaking," Gibbs added once he had Jenny's assent.

* * *

><p><strong>October 12, 2007 2:00 pm<strong>

**Navy Yard, Washington D.C**

Jenny was breathing more freely. When she had left Gibbs' place hours ago, with Hannah and her detail, she had been so nervous she couldn't help but repeat her schedule for the day over and over to be sure she wouldn't forget anything. 'Go home, pack some more stuff, call Noemi and tell her to meet us at home, join Abraham and Mikhael at the Israeli Embassy, meet with SecNav and Metro P.D. at the Pentagon, go back to work if I still have a job to go back to.'

Hannah had been trying to follow her mom's fast speech by repeating what she could but she had soon given up and settled back in her car seat, sucking her thumb and cuddling with her stuffed sheep, her new companion since her wolf was evidence.

Jenny's detail wasn't too happy with her, she had felt it. She had given them the slip, again, and they weren't taking it very well, but they had had the good grace of not commenting on her location and they had softened somewhat when they saw Hannah. They all had children, and the little girl was pretty much irresistible.

It gave Jenny an idea and, even if she felt a little bad at the thought, she knew it could help her.

So instead of leaving Hannah with Noemi, as she had originally planned, she took the little girl with her to meet with her boss.

She had been right; her daughter's presence had prevented the police officers from yelling too much and, when they had given her enough time to explain what had happened, they had dropped the accusation of obstruction of justice. Even more so when she had reminded them that Nathan's attack fell under NCIS jurisdiction since the two perpetrators were Navy. She recognized the lack of courtesy as she hadn't informed them and had lied to them but she hadn't signed any deposition - neither had Noemi.

She had had some trouble keeping a straight face after she noticed that Hannah was following SecNav's every move and imitating him. As her Chief finally became aware of the girl's actions, he started a staring contest with Hannah, which she won.

At the end of the meeting, introductions were made between Hannah and the Secretary of the Navy, Philip Davenport, whom the girl had decided to call 'Lip,' which had, at Jenny's utter surprise, made the man laugh loudly.

Jenny's boss had told her she would keep her job but that he hoped she would warn him in the future if that kind of situation happened again. She wondered if the warning included her growing relationship with Gibbs and decided to be a lot more careful about it.

So here she was, back at Headquarters, Hannah in arms, Noemi in tow, about to set foot in her office again. She didn't miss the startled gasp of her agents when she left the elevator and wondered what they had heard and what they were assuming.

Hannah waved at Team Gibbs as they passed their area and they waved back. Jenny indicated for them to follow and after exchanging curious looks they trailed after their director.

Letting Hannah explore the office, Jenny sat in her chair with a satisfied sigh and Noemi installed a play mat and some toys near the couch.

The team gathered in front of her desk, wondering what this summons was about.

"Don't worry, you're not in trouble. I just wanted to thank you for your help; without you all I don't know what would have happened," Jenny explained and, in return, received nods and smiles from Team Gibbs. "I dealt with Metro P.D, there shouldn't be any problems with the prosecution against Quentin Graham and SecNav knows everything he needs to. This case is definitely closed," she added and the team understood the dismissal and headed to the door.

"Tony, I would like to talk to you for a minute," she called after them and DiNozzo exchanged a look with Gibbs, before taking his place back in front of Jenny.

"I think I own you an apology for leaving you in the dark about so much during your assignment. The situation was extremely complicated. I tried to handle it the best I could but I recognize now I didn't prepare you like I should have. I risked your life. So, I apologize," she told him as Hannah was climbing on her knees.

"Not too long ago, I probably wouldn't have accepted your apology but I had time to think and I realized that I should have come to you and told you I was in over my head. I guess I didn't want to disappoint you or maybe I didn't want it to end, but either way, I screwed up. So you're not the only one to blame, Jenny," he answered, smiling slightly at the end. "She is quite a looker," he added, nodding at Hannah.

"Yes, she is. Her mother was too," Jenny added, looking down at Hannah who had finally acknowledged Tony and was watching him curiously.

"Don't sell yourself short, Director," Tony replied, and Jenny glared at him.

"I meant her biological mother, Tony."

Tony smiled sheepishly and left as fast as he could while Jenny was shaking her head at his antics.

"Silly," Hannah said, making Jenny laugh.

"That he is."

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><p>AN: Reviews are the writer's oxygen, you can't keep going without them. LOL :-D


	8. Chapter 8: Behind Locked Doors

A/N:It's been a while and I can't promise the next one will come quickly. I should be able to post one chapter of Implicit Rule and one of Train wreck next week but then I will go back to school so...

Anyway, thanks to everyone who read, alerts, favorites and a huge thanks and a hug to JiBbS-tIvA4eVs, Last. One .02, left my heart in Paris, jstapny, She-Demon Sparacino for their reviews. :-D

I discovered that 'Toby' is a name given to learned pigs and it really was too perfect. You will see ;-D

Spoilers for 5x04 "Identity Crisis". I know you wanted to see your all-time favorite FBI Agent.

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><p>Chapter 8: Behind Locked Doors<p>

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><p><strong>October 17, 2007 9:00 pm<strong>

**Gibbs' residence, Alexandria, Virginia**

Gibbs still had some difficulty realizing how much his life had changed in just one week.

Jenny and Hannah had stayed with him for another couple of days before Abraham had announced that Nathan was going home. Despite Jenny's warning, Hannah's uncle had harassed all the medical personal so much so that they now refused to treat him.

The family had decided to hire an aide to stay with Nathan during the day because Jenny had refused to burden Noemi with this charge. She had said she cared about and valued Noemi too much to do that to her.

For now, Jenny still refused to let Hannah out of her sight and was still bringing her to work so Noemi was happy being the nanny.

The day before Nathan's return, Jenny had finally gone back home and Gibbs had been invited to tag along. He was finding himself enjoying more and more those quiet evenings with the mother and daughter. Once Hannah had been put to bed, there had been a strange moment where they had stayed standing, face-to-face, hesitant as to what to do next.

Over the past few days, the little girl's presence had only allowed them fleeting moments of intimacy. It was as if a barrier had been lifted, the hesitation didn't last long and they rapidly closed the remaining distance between them. Their relationship had always been very passionate and the years they had spent apart from each other hadn't changed that. They had made love and, even if neither of them had said the words yet, they were both aware of it.

They had reached an unspoken agreement of keeping their relationship between them for now. Gibbs had had the weird impression Abby had felt something was different but the Goth hadn't said anything.

Jenny's three boys had been back for the weekend and he had let them be. A sudden idea had struck him and he wanted to surprise Jenny with it.

He had had just enough time to work on it before they caught their new case and crossed paths with the FBI… again. He had felt strangely good at the sight of Tobias struggling with one of his probies, even if, in the end, Special Agent Krieger had proved herself.

He was finally coming home after observing the FBI's arrest and finishing the paperwork and the last thing he expected was to find Fornell on his doorstep.

"Your door is locked and there is light inside. Something you want to tell me?" his old friend asked.

Gibbs didn't answer and just opened the door. He had a pretty good idea of who he would find inside -there weren't many people who had his key after all- and since he had no chance of getting rid of Tobias, he wouldn't maintain the suspense any longer.

As he had guessed, Jenny and Hannah were in the living-room, on the couch; Jenny was sound asleep, her arms around Hannah, who was slowly waking up and looking around. Spotting him, she raised her arms and Gibbs took her in his, being careful not to wake Jenny up.

"You must be kidding me," Tobias whispered and Gibbs raised his eyebrows at him. "You two hid a kid from me! I feel hurt."

"Don't be stupid, Tobias, she is not ours," Gibbs answered, rolling his eyes.

"I heard a strange story about your Director last week. It was true then," Fornell said, more seriously.

Gibbs nodded. "Hannah, here, is her goddaughter; Jenny's been taking care of her for the past sixteen months, since her parents died."

"Poor kid, seems happy though," Fornell remarked as Hannah was snuggling against Gibbs, sucking her thumb, still looking very sleepy.

"Friend?" Hannah asked Gibbs drowsily, pointing at Tobias.

"I'm not sure. What do you think Tobias? Are you a friend?" the NCIS agent asked his FBI colleague.

"Well, if we keep it strictly between us; wouldn't want anyone accusing me of favoritism with NCIS," Fornell answered and Gibbs nodded.

"Same thing here."

The two men smiled when Hannah looked confusedly between them.

"Silly," she decided and put her head back on Jethro's shoulder.

"That's what she calls DiNozzo," he told Tobias.

"Smart kid," Fornell replied. "So what do you want to eat tonight? My treat, since you got two more mouths to feed," he added slyly.

"Indian?" Gibbs proposed and Fornell gave him a knowing smile. Their case had had them staking out an Indian restaurant and they didn't even get to try the food.

Less than twenty minutes later, their order was delivered and Gibbs was trying to convince Hannah to wake her mom up.

"Crazy Jibbs," she told him, looking at him with wide eyes and shaking her head.

It seems even Hannah, who wasn't yet two-years old, knew what it meant to disturb her mom's sleep. Gibbs had learned it at his expense several years ago and he wasn't about to try it again.

He glared at Fornell, who was shaking with laughter, and tried the ultimate trick - bribing Hannah with the promise of a new toy. Being a good negotiator, she asked for the toy first and he gave her Bert's little brother that Abby had given him for Hannah. Testing the toy, she opened wide eyes at the - interesting sound it made.

Giggling madly, she finally nodded. She approached the couch carefully and shook her mom softly while speaking to her.

Jenny's eyes snapped open after a moment and focused on her daughter. She was getting her bearings back and had yet to notice the two federal agents' presence.

"You escaped?" she asked Hannah and shook her head when the girl gave her an innocent toothy grin in response. She recognized the mini-Bert and wondered where Hannah had found it.

"Jibbs and Toby here," Hannah informed her mom, pointing in their direction.

"Toby?" Jenny asked, confused and raised her head. She burst out laughing when she understood that 'Toby' was the name her daughter had chosen for Fornell. "You couldn't have chosen a better one, honey," she added, thoroughly enjoying Fornell's sour expression. "Loosen up, Tobias, if you knew what she calls SecNav."

"Does your boss know what you're doing behind locked doors?" Fornell asked in mock curiosity, looking between her and Gibbs and smirked when it shut the NCIS Director up.

"What SecNav doesn't know…" Jenny started, letting him complete the sentence the way he wanted to. "You know I could make your life very difficult if you decided to open your mouth about this, don't you?" she added with an evil smile that made the two men shudder.

Fornell raised his arms in surrender. "I don't have a death wish," he said.

"Good," both Jenny and Gibbs replied, nodding.

"It won't be pretty with those two, believe me," Fornell told Hannah in a dramatic fashion, making her giggle.

"When you're done traumatizing my kid, maybe we will be able to eat something," Jenny said, trying to negotiate for the food's liberation.

"Why are you here, by the way?" Gibbs asked, still bemused by the banter between Jenny and Tobias.

"I wouldn't have stood another evening like this at home. Nathan is unbearable, he is pushing himself too hard, can't see why he needs a baby-sitter. When he is like this, he takes it out on everyone and I've never signed up to be anyone's punching bag. The boys are big enough to cope without me," Jenny explained, sincerely annoyed.

"Boys?" Fornell asked and Jenny's eyes snapped in his direction, as if she had forgotten he was there.

"Long story and no, I'm not in the mood to tell it," she answered curtly and Fornell rolled his eyes.

"Stop trying to piss her off," Gibbs warned his friend; he really didn't want to deal with the fallout. "I will be the one who's gonna clean-up if she kills you."

Jenny's smile plus Gibbs' statement seemed to do the trick and silenced Fornell.

"Tell me again why the two of you are friends?" Jenny asked as they were watching Fornell's car moving away.

Once Fornell had been scared enough to stop making annoying comments, the evening had been pleasant, which was a surprise for her. But then, she had never spent that much time with the FBI agent outside of the office. There may have been one or two outings in bar with him and Jethro but that was years ago.

The three of them had shared some anecdotes about past cases, trying not to get into the more gory details in front of Hannah; they had laughed and bantered some more.

"Diane would have a field day with this," Fornell had muttered as he had left- earning a growl from Gibbs and a snort from Jenny in the process- which had led to Jenny's question.

"Being able to put up with Diane created an unbreakable bond between us," Gibbs quipped and Jenny laughed.

"I'm not sure about who put up with whom," Jenny mumbled and Gibbs cleared his throat warningly.

Hannah was out again and it was getting late so Gibbs guided Jenny upstairs, carrying the baby girl for her. She noticed for the first time the safety gates now in place at the stairway.

Instead of entering his bedroom, Gibbs went into another room; the one Jenny recognized as Kelly's old bedroom.

"Jethro, what …" she started before gasping in surprise at the sight. She had seen Kelly's room a few days before, as she had been looking for Jethro, and she hadn't been too surprised to find out that the room hadn't been touched since the last time Kelly had set foot in it. Hence her astonishment as she crossed the threshold and discovered what seemed to be a completely different room.

The walls were a sky blue and yellow, very different from the pink Kelly had apparently favored and very similar to Hannah's own bedroom in her house. The ceiling was of the same blue that the walls were and had fluorescent stars. There wasn't any furniture, just a very basic bed and a night-light also projecting stars.

"The bed is just temporary," Jethro said as he tucked Hannah in and turned towards Jenny, who still looked stunned. "I started her new one, I'm working on it as fast as I can," he told her, a little uncertainly.

Jenny's eyes snapped up and focused on his. "You're building her a bed?" she stuttered, not sure she had understood.

Gibbs nodded. "It's less complicated than a boat," he said, as if it was no big deal.

"You're building her a bed," Jenny repeated. "Jethro, I don't know what to say. You didn't have to do that, it's Kelly's room," she murmured, cupping his cheek.

"I wanted to do it. Kelly is not coming back. I know it, I just didn't want to face it before. It feels right to do it for Hannah… and for you," he added quietly at the end and Jenny felt tears spring to her eyes. She blinked them away and tried to swallow the lump that was forming in her throat.

"Jethro, thank you. I have no idea how difficult it must have been for you, it means so much." Jenny said and embraced him. "She loves looking at the stars," she said as they were watching Hannah sleep.

Gibbs smiled slightly and then got an idea. "Do you want to help me build the bed?" he asked her and, seeing her hesitate, he gave her a baby monitor. "You will know if she wakes up," he told her, knowing she would be worried Hannah might wake up and be a little scared in this new environment.

"You really amaze me sometimes," Jenny said.

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><p>AN: Don't throw tomatoes at me, you will get a Jibbs love scene in the next one. It will also include the return of a certain someone, guess who?

Please review :-)


	9. Chapter 9: Always Faithful

A/N: Okay, so, since I'm going back to work on Monday, I will try to update each of my stories once a week, I hope I will be able to stick to it and my beta won't kill me.

Thanks to JibbsGal1 for her support and help, you're the best :-D

Thanks for reading, alerting, favoriting and THANK YOU with a cherry on top to She-Demon Sparacino, Last One .02 (bonus point for the good guess), JiBbS-tIvA4eVs, left my heart in paris, jstapny (this one is for you ;-D) for their amazing reviews. Lobe you guys :-D

Spoilers for 5x05 Leap of Faith

Enjoy ;-D

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><p>Chapter 9: Always Faithful (Semper Fidelis)<p>

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><p><strong>October 28, 2007 3:00 pm<strong>

**Gibbs' residence, Alexandria, Virginia**

It was Sunday, and none of them were working, which was rare enough to be pointed out. Gibbs was off and Jenny didn't have any meeting to attend, operations to oversee or paperwork to deal with.

At the moment, they were together in the basement, working on Hannah's bed. Gibbs was teaching a fascinated Hannah how to sand and Jenny was watching them, a soft smile on her lips, spellbound. She was dumbfounded to see what Gibbs really could do with pieces of wood.

The past week hadn't been easy. The case Team Gibbs had investigated had hit Jethro pretty hard; she wasn't too comfortable with cases involving a suicide attempt herself, but she knew Jethro had felt like he had failed to save Lieutenant Arnett, their victim. She had tried to tell him that there was no way he could have saved him, the man was condemned the moment he stepped on that roof -when the Lieutenant had been ready to let Gibbs help him, he had been shot- but Jethro hadn't wanted to hear any of it.

She had watched him closely all week but hadn't made any other attempt to reach out to him. She was pretty busy trying to sort her own thoughts out. When she had seen him, on that roof, she had been scared. As an agent, as the director, she knew he had just done his job -even if with Gibbs, it was always way much more than that- but as his… What was the right term to define it? Girlfriend? Companion? Partner? She wasn't sure they could be defined with such simple words; she wasn't sure what they had could be defined with words at all.

She had been scared to see him there, even more so when she had understood that the man he was trying to save had a gun. She didn't know what to make of it; it was messing with her head. They both had dangerous jobs and she couldn't live with the constant thought and fear that something would happen to him. Most of the time, she trusted him to do what had to be done without getting killed in the process, but lately, she felt pretty insecure and he wasn't helping.

Just after they had wrapped up the case, Abraham had suggested inviting Jethro over for dinner. He had called it an official introduction; she had interpreted it as trying to scare Jethro away. She had been tempted to call him on it and make him understand there was no way she would let them have their say in this, but she had finally decided against it and let Gibbs prove to them that he wasn't afraid at all.

Dinner had gone better than she had expected until Nathan intervened and asked Jethro about their case. He had wondered if a man who didn't hesitate one moment to step on a roof with a potentially dangerous man who apparently had nothing to lose, was a good suitor for the mother of such a young child.

She had bitten her tongue when Jethro had answered that he was doing his job and that she knew better than most what it entailed.

Jethro was her best agent; he lived for his job, sometimes literally. It got him going and, no matter her fears, she would never ask him to step down; it would make her a hypocrite. She didn't think there was a way to do anything to stop her from being afraid because she didn't really know where it was coming from, or maybe she did but wasn't ready to face it.

When they had worked together in Europe, there had been some pretty scary situations. They had both been close to dying several times but she hadn't felt the same fear. Her life had been different then. She didn't have the same responsibilities, she hadn't known the same losses. In Europe, it was just the two of them, for the most part; she didn't have anything or anyone else to come home to, she had nothing to lose apart from him. However, recently her life had been turned upside down and she had become a mother.

When Jethro hadn't known about Hannah, it was simpler but now that he was part of their lives, she wasn't only trusting him with her own heart but also with her daughter's. Hannah had taken to him so rapidly, she hadn't had enough time to think about the consequences it could have. This case had been an electroshock, raising way too many questions and giving her no answers and she wasn't sure Jethro had any to give her.

She sighed without realizing it and was too lost in thoughts to notice Gibbs' eyes studying her.

As he was showing Hannah how to sand and guiding her little hands, he was keeping an eye on Jenny. She had been way too quiet today, and he could see something was bothering her. She had been distant all week - no, not distant, it wasn't the right word. Professional. She had been professional, intervening in the case when she had to or when he asked her to, observing from the side but never saying more than she had to. He had been so invested in the case that they hadn't spent any time together outside of the office. He had seen Hannah a few times and for each of them Jen had been conveniently absent. He wasn't sure what was going on, and he was waiting for Jenny to talk to him about it. He knew better than to push.

He wondered if it had anything to do with Friday night's dinner. It had been interesting, to say the least. The invitation had come out of the blue but it wasn't exactly a surprise either. He had been waiting for it since Nathan had been out of the hospital.

He hadn't been worried, just curious; he was wondering what kind of men Jenny lived with and it was the perfect opportunity.

Abraham was the one with whom he could relate the most. Like him, he had lost his wife and daughter in the most cruel way, without being able to protect them. As the two other Marx Brothers, he was overprotective with Hannah and Jenny, who he seemed to consider as his second daughter. Hannah's kidnapping had shaken him, and he didn't trust anyone who wasn't part of his family. Gibbs could understand that and he could see and feel the sadness surrounding Abraham. It was obvious that the only thing that kept the man going was Hannah and Jenny.

Nathan was a darker character. He radiated anger and rage; his past as a Mossad operative was much more visible on him than on the others. He was covered by various scars that he had no problem displaying. If on anyone else, those scars would be proof of an inability to protect themselves; on Nathan it was a proof of his death wish. He confronted danger without blinking, welcomed it even. The anecdotes he related spoke for themselves.

Jenny had reluctantly admitted that Nathan had done everything he could to prevent his brother from becoming Mossad, not wanting to risk losing him too. When Jacob hadn't changed his mind, that had caused the two brothers to drift apart. Elizabeth and Jenny had intervened to reunite them.

It seemed that Nathan was the one who had had the most trouble handling the years in hiding, never accepting the fact that he couldn't do anything against the men after them and blaming himself for Abraham's wife's death. In a way, Nathan reminded Gibbs of himself after Shannon and Kelly's deaths and he knew how dangerous a man like this could be.

He could also feel some sort of jealousy coming from Nathan, and he wasn't sure what to think about it. Jenny had acknowledged a very brief fling between them, shortly after her father's death but she had ended things when she had realized that Nathan wanted more than what she was ready to offer at the time. She wasn't sure he had ever accepted it and had hoped that he would move on at some point. Gibbs didn't feel threatened; he trusted Jenny but he wondered if he would have to clear thing up with Nathan.

Mikhael was the mediator. Much more temperate than his father and his brother-in-law's brother, inventive, moving with the times, cunning - he seemed to always be able to make the household laugh. Gibbs had quickly identified him as Jenny's confident and the only one who seemed to approve of their relationship.

The sound of the door opening pulled him out of his thoughts. Both he and Jenny exchanged a look and turned their heads towards the stairs.

"Jethro?" Hollis Mann's voice resounded upstairs and Gibbs saw Jenny pale slightly.

The blonde appeared a few seconds later and seemed a little startled at finding the three of them there.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you would be…" Hollis started but Jenny interrupted her.

"No, it's fine. I need to go upstairs anyway. I think Hannah needs a nap," she said and Gibbs noticed that the little girl was dozing off on him.

"Jen?" he asked quietly but she didn't answer, just sent him a shaky smile -which she had probably meant to be reassuring- and squeezed his shoulder as she took Hannah in her arms.

"I should have called," Hollis said, when Jenny was out. Gibbs just sent her an inquiring look. "You probably want to know why I came."

Again, Gibbs just raised his eyebrows.

"I just wanted to get back some things I left here. I almost chickened out on the way but I'm leaving soon so it was now or never," she explained.

"You decided to retire?" Gibbs asked, not really surprised at the news.

"I think it's the best thing to do. There is a beach in Hawaii that's waiting for me as soon as my replacement is ready," Hollis answered.

Jethro nodded and indicated for her to follow him.

As they went back upstairs, Hollis paid more attention to her surroundings and noticed some little things like the toys in the living room, a pair of high-heeled shoes thrown haphazardly near the entryway, the safety gates at the stairway, a woman's coat on the banister. The whole house seemed to be transformed by the woman and her daughter's presence. She felt a slight pang at the thought that she had been replaced so fast and tried to push it out of her mind.

When they approached Gibbs' bedroom, they could hear Jenny talk softly in Hebrew to Hannah. Hollis saw the fond smile on Jethro's face and closed her eyes.

Leaning against the doorway, she saw Gibbs pull a box from his closet.

"I don't think anything is missing," he told her as she examined the contents and nodded.

"Thank you," she answered simply, not really knowing what else to say. He nodded at her and they went back downstairs.

"I'm glad to see you like this, Jethro. You seem to be more relaxed, smiling more. It suits you," Hollis said as she put the box in the trunk of her car.

"Hollis …" she interrupted him before he could go any further.

"No, it's okay, Jethro. You deserve to be happy and, if they can give you that, then who am I to say anything against it?"

Gibbs nodded, feeling more relieved than he would have thought. "Goodbye, Holly."

"Goodbye, Jethro," she hugged him lightly and hopped in her car.

"Say hello to Hawaii for me," Gibbs told her.

"I will."

He watched her as she drove off and turned back towards the house, seeing Jenny looking down at him from his bedroom's window.

She stiffened as he embraced her from behind and he sighed internally.

"What's wrong? You've been so quiet all week. It can't be about Hollis," he asked her.

She stayed silent for a while, and he was starting to wonder if she would answer at all.

"It has nothing to do with Hollis. I won't say I'm feeling very good with what just happened but you said it was over, I trust you. It has nothing to do with why I was so distant all week. When I saw you on that roof, there were two thoughts that popped in my head. The agent part of me was thinking about how stupid you were for taking this risk, especially when you knew he had a weapon, but in the end this part of me understood why you did it. Another part of me was terrified, thinking about what would happen if it turned out wrong."

As he listened to her, Gibbs tightened his embrace, not really liking where this was going.

"You follow your instincts; most of the time, you don't think twice about the consequences of your actions on you or on the others. You just do what you have to. I know that, I accept that but you have to know when you do that, there will be times where I'm gonna be terrified, where I'm gonna freak out and get mad at you for taking too many chances," she turned towards him at that and locked her eyes with his. "I'm different from when we were in Paris. It's not just me anymore. I'm not asking you to stop being you," she smiled a little and he returned it. "I just want you to be more careful. I know it's not always possible, that you can't always predict that something is going to turn bad but…" he didn't let her finish and kissed her, trying to convey as much reassurance as he could.

"You thought I was going to dump you, didn't you?" she asked as they stopped before succumbing to the lack of oxygen.

Jethro nodded and lowered his forehead on hers.

"You scared me there," he whispered.

"Well then, you know the feeling," she teased him and stifled a squeal when he took her in his arms and threw her on the bed.

"It's not funny," he growled as he hovered over her, letting his hands wander under her top and smirked when her breath hitched.

"No, it's not," she murmured as he attacked her neck.

They fell silent after that, too busy enjoying each other's body to think of a witty retort. Their lovemaking was slow and gentle, as if they had all the time in the world. They tried to tell each other all they felt without using words. As they rested, Jenny felt more than heard Jethro whisper three little words in her hair. She smiled against his chest; she didn't need more than this.

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><p>I told you I would give you some Jibbs love, didn't I?<p> 


	10. Chapter 10: Family

A/N: I have to break rule 6 ... again. I'm so sorry for the delay, the past couple of weeks were really awful and with my work schedule I only have time to write between 10 PM and 12 AM, which is not much.

Anyway, I really hope you will continue to enjoy this story.

Thanks for reading, alerting, favoriting and a huge thanks to LAst . One.02, left my heart in paris, NCIS She-Demon, itzcheeseball and jstapny for their wonderful reviews.

You don't know how much it helps.

And of course, thanks to JibbsGal1 for her beta work :-D

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><p>Chapter 10: Family<p>

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><p><strong>October 31, 2007 1:00 am<strong>

**Jenny's office, Navy Yard, Washington D.C**

She didn't really know how she had ended up like this; seated on one of the couches in her office, Hannah's head on her right leg, Abby's on her left, Noemi on the other couch - the three of them asleep.

Even if she too was exhausted, she couldn't sleep. She felt like falling asleep would mean giving up on them, it would mean they wouldn't come back and she wasn't ready to admit that.

She still wasn't realizing what had happened. When she had seen the boat explode, it had been like an out-of-body experience, a part of her was frozen, rooted in place while another part of her acting automatically, without any emotion or feeling getting in its way, took charge of the situation. If asked she would never be able to say what she did after the explosion.

The 'automatic' part of her had tried to get a grip on the situation. She had thrown Commander Skinner out of MTAC and sent another team to look for Gibbs and Co. It had been then that she heard a gasp coming from Abby, who had snuck into the room unnoticed. Jenny had approached her to comfort her. After making sure she had done everything she could, she had gone back to her office, Abby still clinging to her.

Noemi and Hannah had quickly felt something was wrong and Jenny had found herself in the middle of a group hug before she could realize what was happening.

That was three hours ago. Since then, Cynthia, Abby and herself had tried the team's cellphones several times and never got an answer. They were slowly losing hope they would ever see them again. Jenny had sent Cynthia home around midnight and promised she would inform her of any developments. Hannah, Abby and Noemi had fallen asleep not long after that, even if they had struggled. Jenny was the only one left holding the fort. She was waiting desperately for some news of the recovery team but, for now, it was in vain.

She didn't hear the door being opened, and it took her a few moments to feel someone else's presence in the room. Turning her head away from the window, she almost gasped as she saw all of Team Gibbs, minus Palmer- who hadn't been part of the ride and didn't know yet how lucky he had been- standing in the middle of her office and watching her.

She shook Abby awake and the Goth looked around her with bleary eyes. She sprung to her feet, very much awake, when she saw the team. She tried to engulf all of them in one of her hugs and the team closed around her.

"I knew it, I knew it. I knew you would come back. We tried to call you but none of you picked up -by the way, never do that again, you should always pick up, it's a rule- but I knew you weren't dead, I felt it." Abby was in full-rant-mode, which meant she was unstoppable. Her speech had startled Hannah and Noemi awake and the little girl, after having been soothed by her mom, ran to the Team.

Gibbs took her in his arms and she hugged him tightly before doing the same with the others. The little girl hadn't really understood what had happened but she knew it must be bad since they weren't home yet and they hadn't seen Jibbs at all today. She was just happy to see all her new friends.

Jenny had stood up and made eye contact with Gibbs. The two were communicating without talking and Jenny internally sighed in relief when Jethro assured her they were all alright. She almost didn't care to know what had happened, now that they were back in one piece.

Gibbs could see Jenny hesitating. Their relationship hadn't been revealed to the team yet- even if with Hannah's actions, he knew it wouldn't take long for the team to put two and two together- and they hadn't really discussed if and how they would break it to them.

However, Gibbs really wanted to pull Jenny against him and show her that everything was fine. He didn't care about what people could think right now, not even if the people in question were his team, so he nodded at Jenny and she approached him slowly.

He embraced her tightly against him and he could feel the team's eyes on them.

After a minute, Tony whistled and Abby clapped, rapidly joined by Hannah, who probably found it funny.

"I knew it!" Abby said, just as Tony turned towards McGee and Ziva and ordered them to pay up.

When Ziva and Tim reluctantly handed the bills to Tony, Gibbs snatched them quickly.

"Hey!" Tony started to protest but a Gibbs glare shut him up.

"When you bet on me, I get the profit," the Boss told his Senior Field Agent.

"We could share them 50/50," Tony tried and Gibbs' glare intensified. "60/40? 70/30? Okay, shutting up, Boss."

"Good boy," Gibbs said, patting him on the head.

"So you guys are …" McGee started, but then seemed to realize who he was talking to and stopped talking, blushing.

"Yes, Agent McGee, we are," Jenny said, amused by the young man's candor.

She had barely finished her sentence when both she and Gibbs were attacked by an Abby hug.

"Mommy and Daddy are together, Mommy and Daddy are together," Abby chanted happily after releasing them, bouncing around, making the whole team laugh.

"I'm happy for you two. God knows it's about time you came to your senses," Ducky told the couple, taking their hands in his.

"Thank you, Ducky," Jenny answered him, and they exchanged, for the first time in a long time, a real, sincere smile.

"It's so great, and you know what today is? It's Halloween and tonight, I'm doing trick-or treating with some kids from my neighborhood before going to a party but I think I should take Hannah for trick-or-treating and then we could have our own party, just the team. No, no, even better, we could do it here. Imagine an NCIS Halloween party, all agents could bring their kids and we could hide tons of candy everywhere and they would have to find them. It would be so amazing. Please, say yes, Director. Pretty please with a cherry on top," Abby asked, pulling her trump card -the 'puppy dog eyes'- that even Gibbs couldn't resist.

"Don't you think it's a little short notice?" Jenny wondered; she really didn't want to break the young Goth's joy but she had to be practical. Parties at NCIS Headquarters were rare and prepared months in advance.

Abby blushed a little at that. "Well, actually, I have been thinking about this for a while and I bought decorations and put them in the lab and I sent invitations and a lot of agents are overjoyed by this."

"So, basically, you're telling me, I have no other choice but to approve, or a lot of people will be disappointed." She was pretending to be angry but it was all an act. She felt like it was a wonderful idea; the agency was under a lot of pressure lately and they could all use some fun, even if it was just for one night.

Abby looked a little uncertain at Jenny's tone but when she saw her director trying to stifle a smile, she sighed in relief and hugged the woman against her.

"Thank you so much, Jenny."

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><p>Jenny was amazed at what Abby had done in a such a short time. Skeletons, spiders and their webs, jack-o-lantern, cut heads, eyeballs ice-cubes and it went on. There was orange and black everywhere. The Headquarters was transformed; she was really contemplating the idea of doing it every year.<p>

At noon, Jenny had gone shopping for costumes with Ziva. Her young friend had been a little subdued and it didn't take her long to understand why.

"You know us, Ziva. We don't talk about our private life. I know that you, the Team, are not just anyone but Jethro and I had so much to overcome that we decided to take it one day at a time. There have been a lot of secrets recently and you don't like it but we really want it to work and we're doing everything we can to make that happen."

Ziva appreciated the honesty and she was more open after that. Their shopping escapade had been fun.

The costume Jenny had chosen was very risqué, especially for the Director of a federal Agency, but the mere thought of Jethro's face at the sight of it had convinced her to buy it.

She had been right. She had gotten ready in her office, with Ziva, and they had received more than one once-over as they descended the stairs. Gibbs hadn't even been able to headslap Tony since he was too busy starring himself. Her She-Devil black and red lace costume hugged her in all the right places; the slit on her right leg showed off the garter belt and she saw Jethro visibly swallowing as he noticed it.

She was surprised that Gibbs had gone along with Abby's idea, but then the Goth could convince anyone of anything. However, she wasn't too surprised at his choice. He was the Duke, John Wayne in _True Grit_.

Ziva was Queen Cleopatra. They had hesitated between this one and a Lara Croft but in the end, the Israeli spy wanted something different. It effected Tony, who had chosen to go as the Dread Pirate Roberts.

McGee had chosen a Sherlock Holmes costume, which was pretty appropriate since Ducky was Dr. Watson. Palmer was Robin, a strange coincidence since Michelle Lee was Catwoman.

Jenny gasped as she saw Abby and Hannah. The Forensic specialist had told her she would take care of Hannah's costume and she hadn't known what to expect. Now seeing the two Gothic Angels, she couldn't help but smile. Abby couldn't have made a better choice.

The Halloween party was a huge success, almost every NCIS agent based at the Navy Yard and some based at Norfolk had responded to Abby's invitation. Their kids had been really happy to be able to visit the HQ, especially with all the traps Abby had placed for them and all the candies they received. Hannah had gotten enough candy to last until her next Halloween, and Jenny was thinking about how she would hide them from Abraham. She wasn't too sure the doctor would be too fond of it.

It had ended after midnight and the team had cleaned up; Jenny had seen Tony putting some spiders and cobwebs in McGee's drawers and Ziva had put a fake rat in Tony's desk. Strangely, no one had dared to touch Ziva's and Jethro's.

"Abby told me you almost kicked Skinner in the groin and that security took pity on him and got him out," Jethro said as they were resting, after he had finally been able to take the costume off her and showed her what it had done to him.

"I should have done it, he would have deserved it. I thought he had killed you all," Jenny replied as she traced patterns on his chest.

"If I had been able to call you and tell you sooner I would have," he said and she took it as the only kind of apology he would give, not that he really needed to apologize.

"It's not your fault; this whole op should have never happened in the first place. You should have seen Skinner, all cocky and slimy, trying to hit on me and convince me he was right," she shuddered in disgust as she remembered.

"Hey, wait a second, he tried to hit on you?" Jethro asked, sitting up quickly and bringing Jenny along with him.

"Oh yeah, he was pretty insistent. It took all my willpower not to strangle him right in the middle of MTAC."

"I'm gonna kill him," Gibbs growled, tightening his embrace around Jenny.

"No need to. I already called his superiors and made sure he would spend the rest of his career stuck behind a desk, doing paperwork and without any top secret clearance," Jenny said, smiling at Jethro's protectiveness.

"He better pray I never see his face again," Gibbs stated somberly.

"I don't think he is gonna be that stupid," Jenny smirked and decided to change the subject to slightly less dangerous territory. "I set up a meeting with SecNav tomorrow; now that the team knows, I think I have to inform him."

Gibbs cringed, he hadn't really thought about it, hadn't wanted to. "Do you think he's gonna give you trouble?"

"I don't see why. You're the only one who has rules against relationships between coworkers," she told him teasingly. "I hope he does trust me enough to know that I can separate my private and my professional lives."

"He can't really say that you're acting differently now since you have always given me special treatment," Gibbs retorted, grinning.

"Smartass."

"I try."

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><p>I have to warn you, angst is gonna come back in the next chapter, it would be way too easy otherwise, wouldn't it?<p> 


	11. Chapter 11: Reminiscence

**A/N**: I just realized that it's been almost a year since I last updated this story, you don't know how bad I feel about that! Anyway, I thank everyone who is still waiting for an update and especially teardrops of ink, wondergirl257, GIBBSandRYANxxx, left my heart in paris, Sparky She-Demon and itzcheeseball for their reviews. A big shout-out to JibbsGal1 for her beta work.

This chapter contains spoilers for 5x07 Requiem, you don't know how much I wanted to headslap Gibbs during that episode! It's shorter than the previous ones and only Jibbs but I will get back on track with everything else in the next one :-)

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><p>Chapter 11: Reminiscence<p>

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><p><strong>November 7, 2007 9:00 pm<strong>

**Gibbs' residence, Alexandria, Virginia**

As expected, Gibbs left the hospital AMA, barely waiting long enough to make sure Maddie Tyler would be okay and only consenting to let Ducky drive him home. Gibbs stayed silent during the trip, and his friend didn't push him.

As they neared the house, Gibbs noticed at once Jenny's car and her detail. He thanked Ducky, approached the two agents and indicated that they could leave. They exchanged embarrassed looks and cleared their throats.

"We're just going to wait for the Director to give us the all-clear," Melvin said, and it gave Gibbs a feeling of dread. He had been really surprised not to see Jenny at the hospital; he was sure she would show up and badger him into staying for observation and her bodyguards' reactions were really worrying him.

He frowned and entered the house. The silence, which met him, did nothing to ease the knot that was forming in his gut. In the past few weeks, he had gotten used to the various noises that came with having two people, one of them being a child, walking around the house. He detected immediately the absence of Jenny's shoes, coat and of Hannah's toys. Not seeing Jenny in the living room or in the kitchen, he made his way up the stairs.

He found Jenny in the master bedroom, standing at the window with a suitcase and several travel bags covering the bed.

"Going somewhere?" he asked, startling Jenny who had been so deep in thought she hadn't heard him enter the house or the room.

She turned towards him slowly and he could see, even with the distance between them that her eyes were red and swollen.

"I wasn't sure you would want me here when you got back." The cracks in her voice confirmed that she had been crying.

"What could make you think that?" Gibbs was genuinely at a loss of what had happened to make her believe she wasn't welcomed here anymore.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the way you treated me for the past 24 hours! I was worried sick about you, and all you did was blow me off when I asked you what was going on. You could have gotten yourself killed. Tony told me he was almost sure you were dead when he pulled you out of the water. Do you have any idea what it did to him to stop resuscitating you so he could give Maddie a chance? Do you have any idea what it did to me to hear that? What were you thinking?" The tears started flowing again and Jenny sounded so hurt and angry that it took all of Gibbs' willpower not to take her in his arms, knowing that right now it wouldn't do any good if he did.

"I wasn't," he answered simply.

"That much is obvious," Jenny replied, wiping her tears away and looking angry with herself for allowing them to fall.

"Can you let me explain for a minute?" Gibbs implored her. She looked mutinous for a moment but she relented and indicated for him to talk.

"I didn't recognize her at first. Maddie," he added at her confused look. "I wasn't expecting that, I wasn't expecting to be hit by all those memories. It's one thing to have Hannah in the house and share a few things with you. But that…" he sighed and combed his hand through his hair. "She was Kelly's best friend, they were always together when they were… Well, when Maddie was younger. She asked me what I thought Kelly would be like and I'm sure she would have been just like Maddie. She needed my help and if I had let her down, if something had happened to her, I would have never been able to live with it," he stopped after that, his throat constricted by the emotions.

Jenny observed him for a while, and he wasn't sure if her silence was a good sign or not.

"I'm not sure it was really Maddie you were trying to save," she said at last and Gibbs looked away, remembering a similar conversation with Ducky after they had found Maddie's stalker's body.

"I can understand that it was some sort of second chance for you to make it right to your daughter somehow. I can understand that. What I can't understand is why you wouldn't let us, let me, help you. I thought we had made progress. I mean, you cleared Kelly's room for Hannah, you told me stories about her but the moment something hit a bit too close, you couldn't get away from me fast enough. When I was the one confronted by my past, you bullied me into talking to you. I had to tell you everything about my father, about René Benoit, about Hannah and her family. You didn't give me a choice about letting you help me. For the past 24 hours I tried to get you to accept my help, I stepped in when I knew you wouldn't be able to control yourself but I allowed you the chance to ask for my help and you didn't take it." She took a deep breath, and he could see her hands were shaking.

"You say that you couldn't have live with it if something had happened to Maddie, but do you think I would be able to live with it if anything happened to you? I can accept the risks of the job but I can't accept that you would throw yourself in the line of fire, on your own, without backup, ignoring our phone calls. I thought I could do this, but I don't think you're going to let me." With that she gathered the bags and she was getting closer to the door before Gibbs was able to form a word.

"So you're running away again? Just like that," he said it so harshly it made Jenny flinch.

"You're the one who just spent a whole day running away from me. I could have gathered my things and left without a word but I waited for you. I waited because I thought you deserved a chance but you don't even seem to see the problem. That's the second time in a week that you almost died. Last time wasn't your fault, but today, today was your fault. I was right there, right beside you. Why was it so hard to just let me in? How can you expect us to build anything if you won't let me be there when you need me the most?"

Gibbs didn't have any answer for her, she could see it so she smiled sadly, cupped his cheek and added, "You know where to find me when you figure it out." She had barely taken two steps before Gibbs' hand shot out to grip hers.

"I saw them. When I was underwater, I saw Kelly and Shannon. Kelly told me to go back, that it was okay and I think maybe it was their way to tell me that they know about you and Hannah and that they're all right with it. Not too long ago, you told me that there were going to be times when you would freak out and get mad at me for taking too many chances and I think it's one of those times. They're gone and it hurts like hell every single day to think about it but I know there is no way for me to bring them back. With your help, I think I can move on. I'm not trying to replace my family. I want a chance to do what they would have wanted me to do, which is to try to be happy even if it is without them. I lost my family. I think I'm entitled to freak out too once in a while," he smiled slightly and Jenny did too and nodded.

"Never once in Paris or since we got back together did I ever compare you to Shannon. You're way too different from one another. I admit that in the past I tried to replace her but not with you and not since you. Is that enough for you?" He was all but begging her to understand and he was opening up in a way he never had before. She couldn't say no to him after that.

She nodded slowly and the relief she saw on his face made her feel a pang of relief. He took her in his arms and she muttered against his chest, "We're really messed up, aren't we?"

Gibbs laughed at that. "We sure are."

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><p><strong>AN**: So, what did you think? Please leave a review


	12. Chapter 12: Of Soulmates and Rule 12

A/N: I meant for it to be up two days ago but RL got in the way again. However, good news there will be another update this week-end.

Thanks to everyone who read, favorited and started following this story since the previous chapter and a big shout out to JibbsGal1, left my heart in paris, JDM1503 and teardrops of ink for their wonderful reviews.

This chapter contains spoilers for 5x08 Designated Target and the rule 12 Jenny mentions is borrowed from madame alexandra's fantastic story Probie Days.

Hope you enjoy ;-)

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><p>Chapter 12: Of Soul Mates and Rule 12<p>

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><p><strong>November 15, 2007 8:00 pm<strong>

**Jenny Shepard's residence, ****3462 P Street NW, Georgetown, Washington D.C**

Ziva was sitting in her car, parked on the street across from her friend and former partner's house. She had been there a while, pondering if this was a good idea. The lights were on inside, and she could see people moving around. She had noticed Gibbs' car, and she was pretty sure Jenny's detail had already spotted her. Well, at least she hoped they did. If not, it would mean they were not very good at their jobs.

Meanwhile, Jenny was standing at the living-room window, hidden behind the heavy curtains, observing Ziva. Her detail had called her as soon as the Mossad Officer had arrived, wanting to know if she needed them to intervene. She had told them not to, having a pretty good idea why Ziva was here and knowing that she would need time to gather her thoughts.

"Do you think she is ever going to get out of the car?" Jethro asked her, as he embraced her from behind, resting his chin on her right shoulder.

"She's second-guessing herself, but I think she needs to talk to someone who understands," Jenny replied.

"Something I should know about?" Her most troublesome agent inquired, but Jenny could hear the teasing undertone.

"You're way too observant not to have noticed what's going on between Tony and Ziva," Jenny teased back.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Gibbs whispered in her ear and smirked when she shivered. "And nothing's happening between Tony and Ziva, not for lack of DiNozzo trying though," he added more seriously.

"You know what I'm talking about. DiNozzo has grown up, sort of, since… well you know," she caught herself before actually mentioning Jeanne and bringing them back to the reason why Tony was involved with her in the first place.

"In some ways he has, but in many others he's still the trouble magnet I got from Baltimore P.D.," Jethro affirmed.

"She's moving," Jenny said as Ziva was getting out of her car.

They both observed her in silence as she got closer to the house, noticing the deep breath she took as she knocked.

"Talk about top agents. They wouldn't move their asses from the couch long enough to make sure it's not a threat," Jenny whispered loudly, indicating Abraham, Mikhael and Nathan who were sitting on the couch engrossed in a basketball match, with Hannah playing at their feet.

"We heard that," they said in unison, not once moving their eyes away from the screen. "You have your own personal bodyguard to check potential threats now," Nathan added slyly.

"Well, it's good to know that when you're not here, I'm on my own," Jenny murmured to Gibbs, before crossing the hallway to open the door.

As he listened to Jenny greeting Ziva, Gibbs felt something crash into his legs. Looking down he saw Hannah attaching herself to his right leg.

"Sleepy," Hannah said yawning, as Jethro took her in his arms.

"Yeah, well it means it's someone's bedtime," he told her, chuckling when she nodded against his shoulder. He had never known a kid who actually asked to go to bed.

"Mommy," Hannah demanded.

Today had been the first whole day that Hannah hadn't come into the office with Jenny since the kidnapping and she had been a bit clingy when Jenny and Gibbs got home, until her uncles snatched her to give Jenny some respite. It was expected that the girl wouldn't let anyone else put her to bed.

"Very well, ma'am," Gibbs answered as he approached the two women in the hall.

"Why isn't it that easy to make you do what I want at work?" Jenny asked innocently, earning a Gibbs' glare.

He transferred Hannah into Jenny's arms.

"I'll be back quickly, unless you want to come with us," Jenny told Ziva, who suddenly looked uncomfortable.

"It is fine, I am good here."

Hannah lifted her head up at the sound of Ziva's voice, smiling widely, even if sleepily, and waved at her.

"Hi, Ziva," the little girl drawled, her head falling back heavily on her mom's shoulder.

"Hi, Hannah," the Mossad officer saluted back, smiling slightly.

"Be right back," Jenny mouthed to them as she ascended the stairs.

Gibbs and Ziva stayed silent for a moment before the young woman broke it.

"It is strange to see you here but it suits you," she said. "You look … different around them, softer maybe," she added, indicating the stairs.

Her boss raised his eyebrows. "Are you saying I'm getting soft in my old age, Officer David?" he growled, approaching her. While Jenny could have easily picked up the teasing from Gibbs' tone, Ziva didn't know enough of her boss' 'playful' side to do so. Her eyes widened, fearing a reprimand or a headslap and she started to stutter in a very McGeeish way.

"Relax, Ziva, I was just pulling your leg," Gibbs said and she seemed confused.

"But you did not touch my leg," she said.

"It means he was teasing you, Ziva," Jenny answered for Jethro as she made her way back to them. "It's another of our colloquialisms."

"I still do not understand what it has to do with my leg," Ziva replied, making Jenny laugh and Gibbs shake his head.

"I think it would be best if we kept the explanation for another time. Now that Hannah is asleep, maybe you can tell me why you're here," Jenny demanded more than asked and Ziva's confused expression was replaced by one of slight embarrassment.

The sideways look she sent towards Gibbs was enough to convince Jenny that her assumptions had been right.

"Why don't you help me with dinner? Surely you'll stay?" Jenny proposed.

"By 'helping with dinner,' she means watching her while she heats up what Noemi prepared," Gibbs intervened.

"You should be very careful with what you're going to say next, mister. The consequences could be dire." Her tone and the veiled threat made Gibbs' gulp.

Ziva looked from one to the other, wondering what she had gotten herself into. She followed Jenny as her friend sashayed into the kitchen, leaving Gibbs standing in the hallway.

As Jenny was picking the dishes from the cupboard, Ziva sat on the counter.

"How is Sayda?" Jenny asked, knowing that Ziva had stayed for a while with the woman who had helped her in their investigation. She hadn't seen her husband for several years and had been waiting for him to come back. She had been told her husband was dead and had traveled all the way to D.C. to identify his body, only to discover that he was very much alive, had remarried and had a child because he thought SHE was dead.

Ziva took a deep breath. "She put on a good… what is the right word? Façade?" Jenny nodded. "Yes. She put on a good façade for her husband, but she is devastated. After all those years, she was still hoping, she was still believing. She said they were soulmates. I…" Ziva trailed off, having some difficulty putting words to her feelings.

"She got to you. This woman. You saw something in her that struck a chord," Jenny remarked, observing her friend closely.

Ziva sighed. "I think it was her faith in her husband. She was sure she would see him again, that they would be together. For seven years, she has never had a doubt and now she finds out that it is already too late. He was the one for her, the only man she loved and now her life has fallen apart. How can she move on from that?"

"Some people can't," Jenny said, knowing that she wasn't really talking about the case.

"Her husband could. He remarried and had a child, while she was waiting, alone, for a sign. He thought she was dead. He didn't try to look for her, he gave up," Ziva shook her head, frustrated.

"Everyone has a different way to deal with grief. Some people cling to their memories and never let go; others try to find someone who looks like the person they lost, giving themselves the illusion of a second chance. Others go for someone completely different who will never remind them of who they lost or so they hope. It's a process; it's long and painful," Jenny explained, looking off in the distance.

"Is that what happened to Gibbs?" Ziva asked, holding her breath, knowing how private Jenny and Gibbs were about their relationship and how sensitive Gibbs was about his past.

Jenny stared at her friend, gauging how much she was ready to reveal. Ziva wasn't like Tony or even Abby. She was discreet and would take any secret to the grave. After all, she had never said anything to anyone about their time as partners or the few things that Jenny had let slip when she had too much to drink. "For a long time, I thought I was just a replacement, that Jethro would never be able to love anyone else except Shannon…" The oven timer went off, cutting Jenny midsentence.

She bent down to retrieve the plate from the oven.

"What happened to make you change your mind?" Ziva asked avidly, and Jenny smiled at the Mossad officer's eagerness.

"Not too long ago we talked honestly, for the first time, and I think I finally realized that even if Jethro will always love Shannon and Kelly, even if they will always be on his mind, he also has some room left for Hannah and for me. Shannon was the love of Jethro's life, but that doesn't mean we can't build something if we're sincere enough. When we were in Paris- and don't ever tell anyone that I openly admitted that Jethro and I were ever more than partners or I will have to kill you," Jenny said, pointing a threatening finger at her young Israeli friend. "When we were in Paris, he never told me about his past and I never told him about mine. We were doomed from the start, because we weren't able to be open about what was really important. Things have changed, we have changed."

Ziva stayed silent as Jenny was filling the plates, pondering what she had been told.

"Do you think Tony will ever be able to be that open about his feelings?" the younger woman whispered so low Jenny almost didn't hear her.

"I think that what Tony went through affected him a great deal. He was in over his head. He confounded reality and fiction and I think on some level, he was in love with the idea of being in love. Jeanne was probably one of the first really serious relationships he ever had, and they never got any proper closure. He got hurt; he's still probably licking his wounds. You have to be patient, give him time to heal." Jenny felt for her friend. She had noticed a long time ago the first sparks between Tony and Ziva and had hoped they would be wiser than she and Gibbs had been. Ziva was talking again, and Jenny refocused on what she was saying.

"… of course, Rule #12 might get in the way. Although I am not sure if we still have to apply it given that you know… Gibbs and you are…" Ziva trailed off, making vague gestures with her hands.

"Rule #12?" Jenny interrupted, confused. "What's Rule #12 got to do with this?"

"Well, you know: 'Never date a coworker'… you don't know that one?" Ziva asked.

"Are you sure you have that one right? In my time, Rule #12 was 'Never date a lawyer'…" It was her turn to trail off. "Oh," she exclaimed in a low voice. "I see."

Ziva seemed to understand too. "He made that one because of you, did he not? Jenny, I am sorry, I did not mean to…"

Jenny interrupted her again. "It's okay. You couldn't know, don't worry about it," she said with as reassuring a smile as she could muster.

"You all right in there?" Gibbs asked, appearing suddenly in the doorway and making them jump. "They're getting impatient."

"The food's ready. We just need to bring it into the dining room. Give us a hand?" Jenny asked Jethro, avoiding his eyes.

"Course." He waited for Ziva to leave with the first plates to take Jenny's arm gently. "You okay?"

"Later," she answered, forcing herself to raise her eyes. "Later, I promise."

He nodded and let her go.

The dinner was strange. Abraham, Mikhael and Nathan all knew Eli David and respected him, so they were truly interested in getting to know his daughter. For once, it diverted the focus away from Jethro and it gave an opportunity to Ziva to shake herself from the case they had just solved.

When the young Mossad Liaison Officer left, she looked a bit lighter, as if she had made a decision.

"So are you ready to tell me what happened to make you look so weird earlier?" Jethro asked from his position on the bed as Jenny was leaving the en-suite. She stiffened a bit and sighed as she sat next to him.

"When we were talking, Ziva mentioned Rule #12."

Gibbs straightened up, understanding at once. Jenny covered his mouth with her hand as he started to talk. "I'm not mad, Jethro. I understand why you would react that way. I betrayed you; I left without a word. I was the one you trusted your life to every day. I probably would have reacted the same way." She took a deep breath. "I don't care if you think I'm weak but I'm sorry, Jethro. I'm sorry for hurting you the way I did, for leaving the way I did and for waiting so long before telling you the truth." She uncovered his mouth and waited for his reaction.

He looked a bit stunned. "That's a lot of things to apologize for. Do you remember how we used to 'apologize' back in the day?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Jenny burst out laughing. "You're worse than DiNozzo. You're lucky your team doesn't know how you are behind closed doors. They would have a field day with it…" Gibbs cut her off by kissing her.

"Less talking, more apologizing," was the last thing he said before they were too lost in the sensations to form coherent thoughts.


	13. Chapter 13: Kids

A/N: Please don't hate me! I started this chapter this weekend but it turned out to be longer than I first expected. I'm so sorry.

Thanks to everyone who read, favorite and follow this story, I would love to hear your thoughts though :-) And thanks so much to left my heart in paris for her review.

This chapter contains spoilers for 5x09 Lost and Found. Hope you enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 13: Kids<p>

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><p><strong>November 20, 2007 6:00 pm<strong>

**NCIS Headquarters, Navy Yard, Washington D.C**

Hannah was currently being ignored, and she didn't like that. Her mother's driver, Melvin, had just brought her to headquarters because her grandfather and uncles were at work and Noemi had to leave early. Family emergency, she had told Jenny. However, what Jenny didn't know was that it was Gibbs who had asked a favor from the housekeeper.

He hoped that Hannah's presence at NCIS would help him convince Jenny to take young Carson home with her because he really didn't want to turn the boy over to Social Services. They weren't any closer to finding his father, and the stepmother hadn't told them everything - of that Jethro was convinced. Even if he knew Carson wouldn't like that, the boy wouldn't be going home tonight.

Which brings us back to Hannah. She had arrived just a few minutes ago. She was wearing the NCIS cap she had taken from Ziva and had Gibbs' dog tags around her neck. She also had a backpack that looked like a small version of the NCIS issued ones from which her mini-Bert and her stuffed sheep were poking through. Ziva and McGee had already seen her and they had exchanged smiles but when they were about to ask her why she was here, she made a shushing motion and turned away from them. It appeared that her target, the Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, was too engrossed in the movie he was watching with Carson to notice her. So, as previously stated, she was being ignored and she didn't like that.

She put her arms akimbo and the glare she sent Tony's way looked so much like Gibbs and Jenny's one that Ziva and McGee's eyebrows shot up and they became really curious as to what was going to happen.

"Silly," Hannah called out suddenly, sticking to her nickname for DiNozzo. The special agent in question, and the boy sitting next to him, jumped from their chairs in surprise and looked around to find the source of the voice.

When Tony's eyes fell on Hannah, he put a hand over his heart in relief. "You almost gave me a heart attack, kid!" he told the girl, which only made her intensify her glare.

"Silly," she called again.

"Yes, ma'am," Tony replied, recognizing the nickname and associating, correctly, the tone and the glare with a pretty good imitation of Jenny.

"Why you not working?" the little girl asked in such a serious tone that Tony was taken aback for a moment.

"I… uhh. Ziva and McGee are not working either." His answer made his two colleagues snort. He couldn't have sounded more like a kid who had gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar if he had wanted to.

"Uh huh. Tattletale," Hannah retorted, shaking her head. Ziva and McGee were slowly choking from laughter, and Tony threw them a sour look.

"Seriously, kid, you're scary," DiNozzo said, and he was almost relieved to see Gibbs coming their way. Almost.

"Jibbs!" Hannah exclaimed as soon as she saw him, and she ran towards him.

The Special Agent in Charge took her in his arms. "Hey, kiddo. Everything okay? Was DiNozzo bothering you?" Gibbs greeted. Tony squeaked in outrage at that last question.

Hannah nodded. "Silly not working and he a tattletale," she informed the Boss.

Everyone heard Tony grumble, 'Who's the tattletale now?'

"Really? Well, you know what I do when he's not working and he's blaming others?" Gibbs asked, slowly approaching his senior field agent. Hannah shook her head and Tony braced himself, for he knew what was coming.

"I do this," Gibbs said as he headslapped Tony, although not as hard as usual. "If he is misbehaving again and I'm not here, I'm giving you permission to do it, okay?" Hannah nodded, her expression very serious, taking this new responsibility to heart and she headslapped Tony too.

"But Boss, you can't …" The glare Gibbs sent his way was enough to shut Tony up. "Of course, you can, Boss. Thank you, Boss."

"NCIS got a mascot, Agent Gibbs?" Carson piped up suddenly, watching Hannah with interest. The little girl turned her attention towards him.

"She is the Director's Mini-Me," Tony informed the boy, who looked a bit confused. He understood the Austin Powers' reference but he hadn't met the Director yet. Tony noticed the expression and added, "You'll get it when you see her."

Hannah pointed her finger at Carson. "Name?" she demanded and Gibbs supplied it. "His name is Carson. Can you say Carson?"

The little girl's face scrunched up in concentration as she tried to repeat the name. "Car-sss-on?" Jethro nodded encouragingly. "Carson," she repeated in a more assured way. "He new?" she asked, noticing he too had an NCIS cap.

Gibbs laughed at the remark. "No, he is a bit young to be an agent. He is our guest today, so you have to be nice to him. Can you do that?"

"Hannah always nice," the girl replied and Gibbs smirked. "Your mom says that too, doesn't mean it's true."

"Mamma?" the girl asked.

"She is in MTAC," Ziva informed them.

"Not allowed," Hannah said, nodding seriously. She had just finished saying it, when Jenny came out of the secured room and looked down on the bullpen. She smiled when she saw Gibbs and Hannah.

"I'm bringing Hannah upstairs and when I come back, you better be working, DiNozzo," Gibbs warned as he grabbed a file from his desk and climbed up the stairs.

He joined Jenny on the catwalk, transferred Hannah into her arms and they entered her office together.

"Thank you for keeping an eye on her while I was in MTAC. Noemi really caught me off guard. I hope her sister is all right," Jenny said, while sitting down at her desk and giving Hannah some sheets of paper and colored pencils.

Gibbs hid his smirk. He was pretty sure Jenny would kill him if she knew he was the reason behind Noemi's so-called emergency.

"Need a signature," he said, getting back to business and handing her the folder he had brought with him as he stood in front of her desk.

"For?" she asked.

"Carson Taylor. Turning him over to Social Services," he explained, giving Jenny a pause. It really wasn't like him to willingly hand a child over to Social Services.

"What about his stepmother?" she inquired, recovering from her shock.

"No, not his legal guardian. And way too many unanswered questions," he replied and, sensing her hesitation, added. "Problem?"

"No. I'm just surprised that you're not trying to talk me into letting him stay with someone from here," Jenny replied, a bit suspicious.

"Not an option. We're not babysitters," Gibbs retorted instantly.

"So, you're turning him over to child welfare?" She felt like she was missing something.

"No, you are. As soon as you sign it," Jethro corrected, circling the desk until he was right beside her and giving her a pen.

Jenny was still hesitant. "It's late on Friday night. I mean, who's still hanging around in Social Services?"

"Have you got a better idea?" Gibbs knew he was going to obtain what he wanted from her.

"He can stay with me," Jenny proposed, falling right into Gibbs' trap.

"Are you sure?" Gibbs asked, hiding his smirk again.

"No. But given my options, it's the decision I'm making. Plus the more the merrier. I'll feel less lonely. I guess you're gonna be working late?"

Jethro nodded. "Okay. Come meet your new house guest."

"Guarantee he's better than the last," she commented coyly and this time she didn't miss her special agent's smirk. She took Hannah back in her arms and stood up. She opened the file and called him back. "Jethro. This is a case report, not a custody transfer."

"Must have grabbed the wrong folder," Gibbs replied unapologetically.

"Go figure," Jenny said, shaking her head. "He couldn't just ask me, could he?" she added, looking at Hannah, who just smiled at her and tilted her head. "Yeah, I guess not," Jenny confirmed.

The girls left the office and went back to the catwalk.

"Looks like we missed the party," Jenny commented, seeing that it was now Ziva who was watching the movie with Carson.

"At this age, the party never ends," Gibbs said, smiling.

"Could be a long night," Jenny sighed just as Abby was getting out of the elevator.

"Not just for you, Director… Oh, why didn't anyone tell me Miss Hannah was here. Hi, little lady," the Goth greeted the girl who beamed at her and held her arms out to her. Abby took her from Jenny and beamed back at her when she saw she had the mini-Bert she offered her.

"Abs, was there a reason you came up here?" Gibbs asked, trying to get her back on track.

"Ah, yes, right. I did come up here for something. I lifted Brian Taylor's prints off his computer and his files," she explained, referring to Carson's father. "AFIS got another hit. They were all over a Beretta used in an unsolved shooting in May of '98."

"The same month Brian and Carson disappeared," Jenny connected the dots.

"He's not running because he kidnapped Carson. He's running because he's wanted for murder," Abby told them.

Jenny's cellphone rang at that moment and after a short conversation she hung up.

"I've got to go back to MTAC and I've still got a few things to wrap up. So, meeting Carson's going to have to wait," Jen said, taking Hannah back from Abby, smiling at the pout the Goth gave her.

"You're gonna be okay with Hannah in MTAC?" Gibbs inquired.

"Don't worry. I have my ways to get her to stay quiet," Jenny replied. "I'll see you later. I hope it won't take too long."

* * *

><p><strong>November 20, 2007 11:00 pm<strong>

**Jenny Shepard's residence, 3462 P Street NW, Georgetown, Washington D.C.**

Carson had been a little subdued when Jenny took him and Hannah back to her place. She could understand how the boy felt and she gave him some space, making sure he knew he could come to her if he needed to talk.

Hannah was so excited by the presence of their guest that Jenny had a hard time putting her to bed. But since the girl had cheered Carson up, she didn't mind too much. Finally, a bath had settled Hannah down and, after they read a story in the rocking chair, she fell asleep.

As Jenny went back downstairs, she could hear the sounds of jazz floating from her study. She could see Carson was still settled in there with a cup of hot chocolate and a magazine. She was going to see him when she heard a knock on the front door she would recognize anywhere.

"I wasn't expecting you tonight," she greeted Jethro and stepped aside to let him in.

"I wasn't expecting to come either," he said, and when she looked at him interrogatively, he pointed to her pocket.

She felt it and immediately realized what he meant. "Which explains where my cell phone went," she said sheepishly.

"Kids," Gibbs smirked, and they made their way to the study. "Jazz," Gibbs commented and Jenny nodded.

"His favorite."

"Ziva was right," Gibbs said. "DiNozzo."

"Hannah saw it too. She calls him Silly Two," Jen whispered.

"You get lost, Agent Gibbs?" Carson inquired when he saw him. "I called almost an hour ago."

"Well, I'm here now. You want to tell me why?" Gibbs replied.

"You get mad easily?" the boy asked after a moment of hesitation.

"Depends on who you ask," Gibbs answered.

"I lied, about my dad. I just wanted you to come over," Carson said, referring to what he had told Gibbs when he called him while Jenny was in the bathroom with Hannah.

"Why?" Gibbs asked.

"To talk," Carson answered simply.

"Okay." Gibbs wasn't fazed by the boy's lie. He took off his coat and sat down in front of him.

"Want me to start?" Carson asked, and Gibbs shrugged. "You're the one with the questions."

"Good point," Carson conceded. "Why can't I go home?"

"Because we need time to do our job," Gibbs replied.

"You mean, find my dad? You think he did something wrong?"

"Not sure yet."

"My dad never breaks the rules. Ever. This is all my fault. Me and my stupid field trip," Carson added, looking angry at himself.

"Carson. This is not your fault," Gibbs started, leaning down a bit to be sure he had the boy's attention.

"It was my fingerprint," Carson interrupted him. "What are you gonna do when you find him?"

"Talk."

"He'll tell you the truth, Agent Gibbs. He says telling the truth is his number-one rule." The pride the boy felt while saying that was clearly visible, and it made Gibbs smile.

"Well, he sounds like my kind of guy."

"Mine too," Carson said, nodding and it seemed the conversation was over. "Time for Letterman," the boy added.

Gibbs shook his head no as he stood up. "Time for bed. "

"But I'm not even tired..." Carson started but he could see Gibbs wasn't buying it. "Can I finish my hot chocolate first?" he bargained and the special agent let him.

"Sure," he replied, and he moved toward Jenny.

"You are so good with them. I don't know how you do that," Jenny commented and Jethro smiled a bit and looked down. "You think he knows more than he's letting on?" Jen added in a low voice.

"I think he's worried about his dad. That's why he doesn't want to go to sleep," Gibbs replied.

Jenny looked over his shoulder and smiled at what she saw. "I guess he's not worried anymore," she whispered. Gibbs turned around and saw Carson had fallen asleep.

They exchanged a smile before Gibbs went back to the boy and took him in his arms.

A short while later, Gibbs was closing the door of the room Carson was occupying and Jenny was closing Hannah's door, having made a quick check on her.

"He'll be fine," Gibbs said and Jenny nodded. "You used the right words to reassure him."

They stayed silent for a moment.

"Are you staying, or do you need to get back to work?" Jen asked him, stepping closer and hooking her fingers in the loops of his belt.

"Well, I sent Tony and Ziva into the woods. We've got the files from Metro P.D., and there is not much more we can do until morning so I think I can stay." His breathing was becoming more labored as Jenny nipped at his earlobe, his jaw and the pulse of his neck. "Jen, if you keep doing that, we should really move to your bedroom."

She threw him a wicked look and moved backwards towards her door. "As you wish, mister." Her voice sounded even huskier than usual, sending goose bumps over Gibbs' arms. He growled as she bit lightly at his pulse point, and he took her bride's style in his arms, making her squeal in surprise.

They paused for a minute to be sure the kids hadn't woken up, and Jenny stifled a laugh.

Jethro opened the door and closed it quickly behind them, pretty much slamming Jenny into it and shushing her protests by kissing her. She hooked her legs around his waist, divested him of his jacket and worked on the button of his shirt.

"Why do you always wear so much?" she said, sounding out-of-breath as they pulled apart when the need for oxygen became too strong.

Gibbs laughed. "That can be fixed," he said, taking off both his shirt and undershirt and letting them fall on the floor. "Better?" he asked as Jenny watched him avidly.

"Much," she replied, roaming her hands over his chest as they kissed again. He took care of her vest and top while she opened his belt. They approached the bed, and Jethro pushed her on it. He removed his shoes and pants before doing the same to her. He took his time to caress her legs, enjoying the shivers it elicited. He joined her on the bed, hovering over her and attacked the flesh of her chest, making her moan. As he was lowering her bra straps, they both froze, hearing a door opening close by and tiny footsteps approaching quickly.

Gibbs threw his shirt to Jenny, and he put on his undershirt quickly. Barely two seconds later, Jenny's bedroom door opened and Hannah appeared, clutching mini-Bert against her, sniffling.

"Baby, what's going on?" Jenny asked, worried.

"Had 'mare," the little girl said as she moved closer to the bed and climbed on it, snuggling against Jenny.

"What happened? You don't usually have nightmares," Jenny inquired, frowning as she felt Hannah shaking her head against her chest. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it."

"Stay?" the girl asked and Jenny and Gibbs exchanged a look. Gibbs nodded and Jenny sent him an apologetic smile.

"Of course, you can stay. Come on," she said as she slid them both under the covers, while Jethro picked up their clothes and put them on a chair near the bed before joining them. He lay down behind Jenny and watched her as she caressed Hannah's back soothingly for a while.

She waited until she was sure the girl had fallen back asleep before whispering to Jethro. "I'm sorry about that. It wasn't exactly what I had planned."

She felt him grinning in her hair. "It's okay, I don't mind. Okay maybe I mind a bit but I understand," he amended after Jenny twisted her neck to throw him a disbelieving look. "You ever think about having kids? Your own, I mean," he asked out of the blue, and he felt her tense up immediately.

"I don't know when I would ever find the time to have a child. I already don't see Hannah as much as I want to and there is already so much risk with my job and I'm not even talking about the risks of a pregnancy at my age…"

"So you have thought about it. At some point," Jethro interrupted her, smirking.

Jenny huffed. "I bet you feel really clever right now, _Leroy_," she said, emphasizing the name she knew he hated. "Why are you so curious to know about my maternal dreams all of a sudden?"

She felt him shrug. "I don't know; the house is invaded with kids. It seemed like a legitimate question."

"Well, 'invaded' may be too strong a word. To be honest with you, when I was younger, I was like every other girl, dreaming of a Prince Charming and of a big happy family. But after my father died, all of this became very secondary. I have Hannah; it's more than I ever expected and it's more than enough for me."

Jethro could feel that there was more to the story than what she was saying but he didn't push. He was slowly learning that if he was patient enough, Jenny usually ended up telling him what he wanted to know. Given the way she had tensed up when he had initially brought up the topic, it was probably very important to her. He realized she fell asleep, and he smiled fondly as he watched Jenny and Hannah snuggled together.

* * *

><p>It took them two more days to figure out that the cold case detective who was 'helping' them on the case had framed Carson's father.<p>

As Carson was reunited with his parents, Gibbs saw that Jenny was once again leaning against the banister of the catwalk, looking down at them, her expression wistful.

He was certain there was something she wasn't telling him, and he didn't care how long it would take. He was determined to find out what it was.

* * *

><p>AN: So what did you think? Liked it, hated it, please tell me :-)


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